F 279 

C4 M2 
Copy 1 



AN HISTORIC CHURCH. 



The Westminster Abbey of South Carolina. 



a Skdci) of 

St. Philip's Church, 

CHARLESTON, S. C, 

From the Establishment of the Church of England under 

THE Royal Charter of 1665 to the Present Time 

(July, 1897). 

BY 

EDWARD McCRADY, Senior Warden. 



CHARLESTON, S. C. 

Lucas & Richardson Co., Printers and Engravers. 

130 East Bjiy Street. 

1897. 



F 279 
.C4 M2 
Copy 1 



AN HISTORIC CHURCH, 



The Westminster Abbey of South Carolina. 



a Slictcb of 



T. Philip's Churc 



■^) 



CHARLESTON, S. C, 

From the Establishment of the Church of England under 

THE Royal Charter of 1665 to the Present Time 

(July, 1897). 



EDWARD McCRADY, Senior Warden. 



CHARLESTON, S. C. 

Lucas & Richardson Co., Printers and Engravers, 

130 East Bay Street. 

1897. 



Rector. 
Rev. JOHN JOHNSON, D. D. 



Edward McCrady. 



Charles. F. Hanckel. 
John M. Kinloch. 
Thomas S. Sinkler. 



Wardens. 

William H. Prioleau, M. D. 



Vestryuien. 



Edward M. Moreland. 
Barnwell Rhett Burnet. 
Walter Pringle. 



Isaac Mazyck. 



Dele spates to the Diocesan Council. 



Edward McCrady. 
John M. Kinloch. 



William H. Prioleau, M. D. 
Isaac Mazyck. 



Committee of Advice Parish Church Home. 

H. W. DeSaussure, M. D. Louis deB. McCrady. 

Theodore D. Jervey. J. North Smith. 

R. Heber Screven. 



Committee on Finance Parish Church Home. 



Caspar A. Chisolm. 
W. W. Shackelford. 



Edward M. Moreland. 
Thomas W. Bacot. 



George T. Pringle. 

Solicitor. 
Thomas W. Bacot. 

Secretary and Treasjirer. 
Arthur Mazyck. 



AN HISTORIC CHURCH 



THE WESTMINSTER ABBEY OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 



A Sketch of St. Philip's Church, Charleston, S. C, 
FROM THE Establishment of the Church of Eng- 
land, UNDER the Royal Charter of 1665, to the 
Present Time. 

By EDWARD McCRADY, Senior Warden. 

The early history of St. Phih'p's Church is but a part of 
the colonial history of South Carolina ; and as it has been 
said of Westminster Abbey that it was a part of the Con- 
stitution of England, so St. Philip's was interwoven into the 
very fabric of the Province. 

The charter of King Charles II, (1665), under which the col- 
ony was founded, granted unto the Lords Proprietors "the 
patronage and advowsons of all the churches and chappels" 
(i. e. the power to name and appoint ministers) "which as 
the Christian religion shall increase within the Province, 
territory, islets and limits aforesaid, shall happen hereafter 
to be erected ; together with license and power to build and 
found churches, chappels and oratories in convenient and 
fit places within the said bounds and limits, and to cause 
them to be dedicated and consecrated according to the 
ecclesiastical laws of our Kingdom of England." 

In pursuance of this provision of their charter, the 
Proprietors in the famous Fundamental Constitutions, 
which they endeavored to impose, inserted the following 
clause : 

"As the country comes to be sufficiently planted, and 
distributed into fit divisions, it shall belong to the Par- 
liament to take care for the building of churches and the 
public maintenance of divines, to be employed in the exer- 



else of religion, according to the Church of England; which 
being the only true and orthodox, and the national re- 
ligion of all the King's dominions, is so also of Carolina; and 
therefore it alone shall be allowed to receive public main- 
tenance by grant of Parliament." 

These Fundamental Constitutions, as they were termed, 
were never assented to by the people of the Province, 
and so were never constitutionally in force under the 
charter. But the Church of England was accepted by 
the colonists as established under the charter. And so we 
find Governor Sayle, Puritan though he himself was said to 
have been, writing to the Proprietors within three months 
after the arrival of the colonv on the Ashley (25 June, 
1670,) that a clergyman of the Church of England should 
be sent to them^ — "one Mr, Sampson Bond, heretofore of 
long standing in Exeter College in Oxford, and ordaigned 
by the late Bishop of Exeter, the ole Do'r Joseph Hall." 
And again in a letter of 9th September, in which Forence 
O'Sullivan, Stephen Bull, Joseph West, Ralph Marshall, 
Paul Smith, Samuel West and Joseph Dalton unite, he 
urges the want of an able minister by whose means corrup- 
ted youth might be reclaimed, and the people instructed. 
"The Israelites' prosperity decayed when their prophets 
were wanting, for where the ark of God is," he says, '"there 
is peace and tranquility." {Calendar State Papers Colonial 
{Sainsbury) London, i88g, 202-2^6.'] The Rev. Mr. Bond, 
who was in Bermuda, did not come, though the Proprietors 
offered him 500 acres of land and £i\o per annum if he 
would do so. 

It is not known certainly when the first minister came 
into the Province. The Rev. Dr. Dalcho heads the list of 
the clergy in South Carolina with the name of Morgan 
Jones as being in the Province in 1660; and Bishop Perry 
in his History of the American Episcopal Church {Vol. i, 
372^ gives a letter which first appeared in the Gentleman' s 
Magazine for March, iy^o,{Vol. 10, loj-f) purporting to 
have been written by this clergyman March 10, 1685-6, 
in which he states that he was sent from Virginia by Sir 



William Berkeley, the Governor, to meet the fleet under 
West on its arrival. The letter is full of anachronisms and 
impossibilities, and is manifestly a fabrication. It is safe 
to say that no such clergyman was in the Province at that 
time; indeed there was no Province of Carolina in 1660. 

We have no account of the building of any church in Old 
Town, on the Ashley, the site occupied by the colonists for 
the first ten years after their arrival in Carolina. Cul- 
pepper, the Surveyor General in 1772, marks a tract re- 
served, as he supposed, for a minister. Bishop Perry in his 
History oftJieAuicricaii Episcopal Church, Vol. 1,372, quotes 
a letter of Commissary Johnson, written in 1710, in which 
he states that the Rev. Atkin Williamson had been in the 
Province 29 years, which would imply his arrival in 1681. 
But in a deed of Originall Jackson and Meliscent, his wife, 
giving a tract of land for another church, dated January 14, 
1680-1, Mr. Williamson is mentioned as then officiating. 
The inference is, therefore, that he had arrived at least 
as early as some time in 16S0. Mr. Williamson in 1709 
petitioned the General Assembly "to be considered for 
his services in officiating as minister of Charles Town," 
and the Act of 1710, appropriating £-}fi per annum to 
his support, states "that he had grown so disabled with 
age, sickness and other infirmities that he could no longer 
attend to the duties of his ministerial functions, and was so 
poor that he could not maintain himself." {Dalcho's Church 
HisL,j2.) There was a clergyman in Carolina in 1689, for 
it was one of the tyranical acts of Governor Colleton that 
he fined and imprisoned him for preaching what the Gov- 
ernor considered a seditious sermon. {Hist. Sketches of So. 
Ca., Rivers, 410.) But who this minister was, Mr. William- 
son or another, is not known. Mr. Williamson was cer- 
tainly in the Province at that time. 

Neither is it certainly known when the first church-build- 
ing was erected within the limits of the present city. We 
do know pretty conclusively that no such building had been 
erected in 1682. For Thomas Ash, a clerk on board the 
Ri(!hmond, the vessel that brought the first Huguenots in 



i68o, in a description of Carolina published upon his return 
in 1682, says : "The town is regularly laid out into large and 
capacious streets, which to buildings is a great ornament 
and beauty. In it tJiey have rcsei'ved convenient places for a 
chnrch, tozvn house and otJicr public struct uresy [CarroVs Col- 
lection, Vol.2, 82.) We may safely assume that no church 
had then been built, for the writer, who was so particular 
in saying that a place had been reserved for a church, would 
certainly have mentioned it, had one then been built. The 
site reserved for the church is that at the southeast corner 
of what are now Broad and Meeting Streets, and upon it 
was erected the first St. Philip's Church, where now stands 
St. Michael's. So this spot, set apart at the very inception 
of the city, has remained .until this day consecrated to the 
service of God and separated from all unhallowed, worldly 
and common uses. The plot reserved was not, however, 
nearl)' as large as that occupied by the present Church of 
St. Michael's and its grave yard. It was not much deeper 
upon Broad Street than the length of the present church. 
This we know because by a deed dated June ii, 1697, a lot 
of land adjoining the church was conveyed "to the 
Right Honorable Proprietor Joseph Blake, Governor, and 
his successors in trust for the use of St. Philip's Church for a 
yard thereunto forever." [Dalcho's Churcli History, 2y.) 
The dimensions of this lot thus added are not given. But 
again in 1816 another lot was purchased and added to the 
church yard which was forty feet in depth, extending from 
the present Mansion House so as to include the iron gate 
that opens on Broad Street, which leaves but thirty feet 
between the gate and the church for the lot conveyed to 
Governor Blake as an addition to the original church yard. 
"The Octogenerian Lady," who wrote in 1855, tells us that 
"the city square was originally the grave yard of the first 
St. Philip's or English Church, which was built on the spot 
where the only St. Michael's stands." But for this we have 
no other authority. The Church was first known as "the 
Church" or "the English Church." Its distinctive name "St. 
Philip's" first appears in the deed to Governor Blake in 1697, 



above referred to. Ramsay states that the first church 
was built about 1690, but gives no authority. Dr. Dalcho 
thinks that it was built in 168 r or 1682. As we have said, we 
may assume that it had not been built in 1682 ; but prob- 
ably it was built before 1690. This is all that can be said on 
the subject. Whenever built, it was of black cypress upon 
a brick foundation, and was said to have been "large and 
stately." It was surrounded by a neat white palisade fence. 
It must, however, have been very hastily built and of un- 
seasoned materials as the Act of 1720 for hastening the 
completion of the new brick church which had been begun 
in 1710 recites that it "must inevitably in a very little time 
fall to the ground, the timbers being rotten and the whole 
fabric entirely decayed." This may be added to Dr. Dalcho's 
reasons for fixing the earlier date of its erection. 

Though Mr. Williamson was still officiating in the col- 
ony he does not appear to have been the minister of St. 
Philip's in 1696, for Dalcho states that that year, the Church 
being vacant, the Rev Samuel Marshall, A. M., was ap- 
pointed to the cure. Mr. Marshall came out recommended 
by the Lord Bishop of London and the Lords Proprietors 
of the Province as a sober, worthy, able and learned divine, 
a recommendation of which the Act of 1698, settling a main- 
tenance on a minister of the Church of England in Charles 
Town, declares by his devout and exemplary life and good 
doctrine he had approved himself worthy. His rectorship 
was, however, short ; he died of yellow fever in 1699, the 
first appearance of that malignant disease in the Province. 

Two events of great interest to the Church took place in 
the year 1698, during Mr. Marshall's brief ministry, the first 
of which was the passage of ''An Act to settle a maintenance 
on a minister of the Chnrch of England in Chai'les Town.'' 
From the recital in this Act wx learn that Mr. Marshall, 
"out of the zeal he had for the propagation of the Christian 
religion, and particularly that of the Church of England," 
had "left a considerable benefice and honorable way of 
living in England to come out to Carolina," and for that 



8 

reason, and upon the recommendation of the Bishop of 
London and the Lords Proprietors, the Act provided that he 
should enjoy all the lands, houses, negroes, cattle and 
moneys appointed for the use, benefit and behoof of the 
minister of Charles Town, and specifically appropriated a 
salary of £i^o per anniiin to him and his successors for ever 
and directed that a negro man and woman and four cows 
and calves should be purchased for his use and paid for out 
of the public treasury. This Act was passed on the 8th 
October, 1698. 

On the loth December, in the same year, Mrs. Affra Com- 
ing, widow of John Coming, deceased, and a lady of eminent 
piety and liberality, made the munificent donation of 
seventeen acres of land (then adjoining the town, now in 
the very heart of the city) to Mr, Marshall, and his succes- 
sors, ministers of Charles Town. This is the Glebe land now 
held by the two Churches, St. Philip's and St. Michael's; 
the same having been divided between them. {Dalcho's 
Church Hist., j2-jj) 

Before learning of the death of Mr. Marshall, the Pro- 
prietors had secured the services of the Rev. Edward Mar- 
ston, M. A., for the settlement on Cooper River, but upon 
his arrival in 1700 he was put in charge of St. Philip's 
Church in the place of Mr. Marshall, deceased, Unfor- 
tunately, Mr. Marston was a person of very different dis- 
position and character from Mr. Marshall. Though 
recommended by an- Archbishop, as well as by the Bishop 
of London, he had been a notorious Jacobite ere his coming 
to this Province, and was for a time imprisoned m England 
for railing against the government. {Hist. Ant. Epis. Ch., 
Bishop Perry, Vol. i,jy6.) He brought with him the same 
violent passions and contentious disposition. A Jacobite 
in England in the reign of William, he turned with equal 
rancor against the churchmen in Carolina under Queen 
Anne. He espoused the cause of the dissenters against the 
establishment of the Church in 1704, and preached most 
violently against Sir Nathaniel Johnson, the Governor, and 
his party — preparing notes, and keeping them ready for use 



in the pulpit if any of that party appeared in the church. 
The Lay Commission of 1704 was provided especially to 
get rid of this minister, who refused to forbear from med- 
dling in politics. 

During the controversy over the establishment of the 
Church and the contentions with Mr. Marston, another 
minister of a name very similar to his came into the Prov- 
ince, and in some way obtained possession of the rectory of 
St. Philip's and the charge of the church. This was Richard 
Marsden. 

No provision had been made by the government or 
Church of England for the Episcopal supervision of the 
clergy who came out to America, and it cannot be denied 
that many of them were outcasts of the church at home, 
some of them of the vilest character. Fortunately for the 
Church in South Carolina, as it happened, blessed with the 
aid of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, in 
which benefit this Province was the first of all the colonies 
to participate, her clergymen, after the establishment of 
the Church, were men of character, full worthy of their 
high calling. But the scandals of many of the clergymen 
in the colonies induced the Bishop of London, who claimed 
a general jurisdiction of all the colonial churches, to send 
out commissaries, i. e. presbyters charged with the general 
administration of the Church and supervision of the clergy. 
The Church having been now established with eight clergy- 
men in this Province, the Bishop of London sent out the 
Rev. Gideon Johnson, an L'ish clergyman who had been 
recommended by the Archbishop of Dublin to the Bishop 
of London as a suitable person to act as his commissary in 
Carolina, requesting'that he should be made the minister of 
Charles Town. After a very tedious passage Mr. Johnson 
arrived off the bar, and the ship being unable to cross on ac- 
count of the tide, impatient to get to land he ventured in a 
small sloop with other passengers to proceed to the town. 
Unfortunately, a sudden squall coming up, the sloop was 
driven on a sand bank, supposed to have been Morris Island, 



10 

and did not get to the city for some days. Mr. Johnson, 
whose health was not good, suffered much, from the ex- 
posure, and his temper, as it appears, still more so. To 
add to his discomfort, he found Mr. Marsden ni the "par- 
sonage house," claiming to be the incumbent of St. Philip's 
Church. In his distress he poured out bitter complaints to 
the "Great Bishop" who had sent him out, declaring that he 
had never repented so much of anything, his sins only ex- 
cepted, as coming to this place. He described the people 
to whom he was sent as the vilest race of men on earth, 
with neither honor, nor honesty, nor religion. Marsden, 
who was with little doubt an impostor, as he could produce 
no evidence of ordination, and could give no satisfactory 
account of the loss of his papers, was finally ousted, and 
Commissary Johnson duly installed as rector of St. Philip's. 
Dalcho says that the assiduity and piety of Commissary 
Johnson soon gained him the affection of the people, and 
that the laborious duties of his parochial cure so im- 
paired his health that he was given leave of absence for 
eighteen months, during which time the Rev. Dr. Le Jau, 
the rector of St. James Goose Creek, officiated once a month 
at St. Philip's. 

In 171 1 a free school was established by the General As. 
sembly in connection with the Society for the Propagation 
of the Gospel, and placed under the care of the Rev. Wil-. 
Ham Guy, A. M., who at the same time was appointed as- 
sistant to the rector of St. Philip's. Mr. Guy was the next 
year removed to the cure of St. Helena, Beaufort, and was 
succeeded by Thomas Morrittas master of the school, who 
appears to have been but a deacon at the tim^, but who 
having gone to England returned in priest's orders in 1717. 
A strange thing now happened. Commissary Johnson had 
been cast away on his coining to the Province upon a sand 
bank. In the month of April, 1716, the Hon. Charles 
Craven, Governor of the Province, embarked for England, 
and Mr. Johnson with thirty other gentlemen went over 
the bar to take leave of him. Again a sudden squall overset 
their vessel, and Mr. Johnson, who was in the cabin, lame 



11 

with the gout, was unfortunately drowned. It is remarkable 
that the vessel is said to have drifted on the same bank on 
which Mr. Johnson had nearly perished when he first came 
to Carolina, and there his body was found. It was brought 
to the town and buried with every mark of respect and sor- 
row. His parishioners did not know of the character he 
had given of them to the Bishop of London, else perhaps 
they would not have held Mr. Johnson in such regard. 

In England the two systems, the Parish and the Town 
or Township, had existed from the most ancient times 
side by side, usually but not always coincident in area, 
yet separate in character and machiner}/. The town- 
ship, which preceded the parish, was the unit of civil 
and the parish the unit of ecclesiastical administration. 
{Blackstonc Vol. i, 112-16. Stubbs Cons. Hist., i, 22y.) 
The Puritans of New England, disaffected to the Church, 
adopted the township system to the exclusion of the 
parochial. The Churchmen, who settled at Barbadoes, 
nearly about the same time, on the other hand established 
parishes, and, from time to time adding civil to the eccles- 
iastical duties of parochial officers, contented themselves 
with that organization as the basis alike of civil as of ec- 
clesiastical affairs. The parish thus became the unit alike 
of Church and State, and the election precinct of members 
of the Commons House of Assembly. The Church Act of 
1706 adopted the names of the parishes in Barbadoes for 
those in this Province, and in 1712 the care of the poor, 
which, under Governor Archdale's act of 1695, had been 
committed to overseers, was put under the charge of the 
vestries and wardens of the Church in this Province — a 
legitimate charge in their ecclesiastical capacity. 

In the same year by "An Act for the better observation of 
the Lord's Day, commonly called Sunday' — which required all 
persons to abstain from labor on that day ; or from selling 
goods; or from travelling, excepting it be to go to a place 
of religious worship and to return again, or to visit or relieve 
the sick ; or from indulging in sports or pastimes — it was 
made the duty of the constables, and church wardens of 



12 

St. Pliilip's, once in the forenoon and once in the afternoon, 
in time of divine service, to walk through the town and 
to observe, suppress and apprehend all offenders against 
this law. 

In 1716 the Assembly went further and adopted the 
Parish system of Barbadoes as a model of the government 
of this colony. From this time until the Revolution, all 
elections in Charles Town for members of the General 
Assembly, &c., were held at St. Philip's, the Parish Church, 
and were conducted by her wardens; and various municipal 
duties were imposed upon her vestry. 

The Fundamental Constitutions had provided that "all 
towns should be governed by a Mayor, twelve Aldermen 
and twenty-four of the Common Council," but like 
most provisions of that most remarkable instrument this 
was found impracticable. There was but one town in 
the Province. And though Charles Town had become a 
place of considerable wealth and importance, it had not 
yet arrived at a condition to warrant so grand and ex- 
tensive a government. There was indeed no municipal 
'government before the Revolution. Until that time the 
law-making power was the same for the town as for the rest 
of the colony. The General Assembly legislated directly 
and passed Acts relating to the streets and police regula- 
tions and made directly all such municipal ordinances as are 
usually delegated to a city government. One of the most 
important and responsible of the duties and powers imposed 
upon and entrusted to the vestries was that of assessing, 
levying and collecting the tax for the support of the poor 
of the parish. This was a peculiarly heavy and trouble- 
some duty of the Vestry of St. Philip's, because of the 
continual transient poor in the town. 

In 1722 an attempt was made to change this system of 
municipal government, and an Act was passed for the pur- 
pose ; but an outcry was at once raised against the move- 
ment. A petition was addressed to the Hon. James Moore, 
Speaker, and the rest of the Commons House of Assembly 
by the major part, it was said, of the inhabitants of Charles 



13 

Town against it, and praying for its repeal "as they appre- 
hended the consequence thereof will be the desertion of the 
town by the inhabitants." Among the signatures to this 
protest the number of Huguenot names is very noticeable 
as the result of the protest was the retention of so much of 
the municipal power in the vestry and wardens of the 
Church of England. A memorial was sent to England by 
the merchants of Charles Town desiring to be heard by 
counsel against the Act, and though Francis Younge, who 
was then the agent of the Colonial Government in Loudon, 
opposed the memorial, the Lord's Justices in council, u]jon 
a representation of the Board of Trade, approved an order 
repealing the Act, and the government of the town was 
left as it had been. 

The Rev. Alexander Garden arrived in Charles Town in 
1719, the year in which the Proprietary government was 
overthrown, and was elected Rector of St. Philip's, and 
as such he faithfully served the Church for thirty-four 
years. {Dalciius Church History, g8.) In 17 10 an Act had 
been passed, we have mentioned, "for the erecting of a new 
brick church at Charles Town to be the Parish Church of 
St. Philip's, Charles Town." Dr. Dalcho states that it is 
not known at what period this new church was first opened 
for divine service. He supposes that it was probably not 
before 1727 when the old church, where St. Michael's now 
stands, was taken down. But the exact date has since been 
definitely ascertained. Dr. Ramsay, in a note to his 
history, {Vol. 2, p. /j.) states that divine service was first 
perforined in the second St. Philip's Church in 1723, and in 
that of St. Michael's in 1761. Bishop Gadsden, in his ser- 
mon upon the consecration of the present, the third, St. 
Philip's Church building, also mentions that the second St. 
Philip's Church, which was burned in 1835, was opened for 
worship on Easter Day, 1723. In the report of the com- 
mittee of the congregation and vestry upon the commemo- 
ration of the one hundred and fiftieth year since the con- 
gregation of St. Philip's Church had worshipped upon the 



14 

present site of the Church, (1874,)^ it is said that it was 
within the recollection of some then living that there was a 
medallion upon the tower of the church bearing the date 
"1723" — and such medallion appears upon the engraving of 
the building, copies of which have been preserved. There 
is a tradition, says the report, that, for some time after the 
church was opened, the members of the congregation car- 
ried chairs with them upon which they sat during the ser- 
vice. This explains the confusion of the periods fixed for 
the opening of the church, 1723 and 1724; the church having 
been opened in 1723. before it was completed in 1724 when 
the pews were, alloted. Dr. Dalcho, writing in 1820, thus 
describes the building: 

"^7. Philip's Church stands upon the east side of Church Street, a 
few poles north of Queen Street. It is built of brick, and rough cast. 
The Nave is 74 feet long ; the vestibule, or more properly, the belfry, 
37, the portico 12 feet and 22^ feet wide. The Church is 62 feet wide. 
The roof is arched, except over the galleries ; two rows of Tuscan pil- 
lars support five arches on each side, and the galleries. The pillars are 
ornamented on the inside with fluted Corinthian Pilasters, whose capi- 
tals are as high as the cherubim, in relief, over the centre of each arch, 
supporting their proper cornice. Over the centre arch on the south 
side are some figures in heraldic form representing the infant colony 
imploring protection of the King. The Churth was nearly finished 
when the King purchased the Province of the Lord's Proprietors. 
This circumstance probably suggested the idea. Beneath the figures 
is this inscription ; Propiiis res aspice nostras. This has been 
adopted as the motto of the seal of St. Philip's Church. Over the mid- 
dle arch on the north side is this inscription : Deus niihi sol, with ar- 
morial bearings, or the representation of some stately edifice. 

"Each pillar is now ornamented with a piece of monumental sculp- 
ture, some of them with bas-relief figures, finely executed by some of 
the first artists in England. These add greatly to the beauty and 
solemnity of the edifice. There is no chancel ; the Communion table 
stands within the body of the Church. The east end is a panelled 
wainscot ornamented with Corinthian pilasters, supporting the cornice 
of a fan-light. Between the pilasters are the usual Tables of the Dec- 
alogue, the Lord's Prayer and the Apostles Creed. The organ was im- 
ported from England, and had been used at the coronation of George 



*NoTE — This commemoration service was held on Sunday, !(th Au- 
gust, 1874, the allotvicni of pews having been made in August, 1724; 
but the first service was held in the Church on Easter Day, 1728. 



15 

II. The galleries were added subsequently to the building of the 
Church. There are 88 pews on the ground floor and 60 in the galleries. 
Several of the pews were built by individuals at different times with 
the consent of the vestry. The Communion Plate was a donation to 
the Church. Two Tankards, one Chalice and Patine, and one large 
Alms Plate were given by the government and have each the Royal 
Arms of England engraved on each piece. One Tankard, one Chalice 
and Patine, and one large Alms Plate have engraved on them : The 
Gift of Col. Will. Rhett, to the Church of St. Philip, Charles Town, 
South Carolina. One large Paten, with I. F. R., engraved on it. The 
pulpit and reading desk stand at the east end of the Church, at the N. 
E. corner of the middle aisle. The front of the Church is adorned 
with a portico, composed of four Tuscan columns, supporting a double 
pediment. The two side doors, which open into the belfry, are orna- 
mented with round columns of the same order, which support angular 
pediments that project 13 feet; these give to the whole building the 
form of a cross and add greatly to its beauty. This, however, is some- 
what obscured by the intervention of the wall of the grave yard. Pil- 
asters of the same order with the columns are continued round the 
body of the Church, and a parapet wall extends around the roof. 
Between each of the pilasters is one lofty sashed window. Over the 
double pediment was originally a gallery with balusters which has 
since been removed as a security against fire. From this the steeple 
rises octagonal ; in the first course are circular sashed windows on the 
cardinal sides ; and windows with Venetian blinds in each face of the 
second course, ornamented with Ionic pilasters, whose entablature sup- 
ports a gallery. Within this course are two bells. An octagonal 
tower rises from within the gallery, having sashed windows on every 
other face, and dial plates of the clock on the cardinal sides. Above is 
a dome upon which stands a quadrangular lantern. A vane, in the 
form of a cock, terminates the whole. Its height probably is about 80 
feet. 

"St. Philip's Church has always been greatly admired. Its heavy struc- 
ture, lofty arches and massive pillars, adorned with elegant sepulchral 
monuments, cast over the mind a solemnity of feeling highly favorable 
to religious impressions. The celebrated Edmund Burke, speaking of 
this Church, says, it 'is spacious and executed in a very handsome taste, 
exceeding everything of that kind which we have in America;' and the 
biographer of Whitefield calls it 'a grand Church resembling one of 
the new churches in London.' "* 

The present Meeting Street was originally called Church 



■^'Inscriptions from tablets on the pillars and walls of the Church at 
the time of its destruction by fire, in 1835, will be found in Dalcho's 
Church History, pp. 13'2-126, and in the first Year Book of the Cily, 
1880, (Mayor Courtenay). 



16 

Street, but, upon the removal of the congregation of St. 
Philip's to the present site of the church, the street on 
which it was erected took the name of Church Street, and 
the old Church Street became Meeting Street from the 
white "Meeting House" or Congregational Church, now 
known as the Circular Church. 

The register of births, marriages and deaths still exists 
from the year 1720, but we have no minutes of the pro- 
ceedings of the Vestry before 1732. On the 22nd August, 
1748, the Vestry ordered "that Mrs. Woolford be again ap- 
ply'd to about the journal of the Vestry before the year 
1732, which, from the demise of Mr. Heyman, the former 
clerk of the Vestry, hath been missing and acquaint her 
that unless she will make oath that she hath not that book 
in her possession or knows not in whose possession it is 
that she will be prosecuted — that, upon Mrs. Woolford 
exculpating herself in such manner, an advertisement be 
put in the Gazette ofTering a reward of five pounds to 
any person that shall produce the same." Mrs. Woolford 
must have exculpated herself, for we find advertisements 
for the lost minute book in the Gazette of the 6th and 12th 
of September following. The book was not recovered, 
and this most valuable historical record is thus lost to us. 

By the Church Act of 1706 the vestrymen and wardens 
were required to take the usual oaths required by Parlia- 
ment "and likewise to subscribe the test." The minutes 
for the year 1733 and 1734 contain merely the entry that 
the vestrymen and wardens took the several oaths and 
qualified. But at every Easter election afterwards the 
'"test" is written out and subscribed by each vestryman and 
warden elected. The "test" for 1735, for instance, is in 
these words: 

"We, the Vestry and Churchwardens of the Parish of St. Philip's, 
Charles-town, who have liereto subscribed our names, do declare that 
we believe that there is no trans-substantiation whatever in the Sacra- 
ment of the Lord's Supper, or in the elements of bread and wine, after 
consecration thereof by any person whatsoever. Signed the Seven- 



17 

teenth day of April, in the year of (3ur Lord One Thousand Seven 
Hundred and Thirty-five." 

In the first vestry, of which we have the record, we find 
the names of three Huguenots — Col. Samuel Prioleau, son 
of Elias Prioleau the "Pastor" and the most distinguished 
and prominent of all the Huguenots who came to thi.s Prov- 
ince — Mr. Gabriel Manigault, the son of the emigrant and 
of Judith Manigault, a most interesting sketch of whose re- 
markable career is found in the 4th number of the Trans- 
actions of the Huguenot Society of South Carolina — and 
Mr. John Abram Motte, the founder of the distinguished 
family of that name. These gentlemen, with the other 
vestrymen, took the oath of "supremacy," subscribed 
the "test" just quoted, and qualified. We give a few 
entries from the journals, showing that these offices 
were no sinecures and indicating the municipal and other 
duties imposed upon the Vestry and Wardens of the 
Church, from which it will appear that there is little reason 
for wonder that persons had to be forced to serve under 
penalties for refusing. 

An account is opened ""TJic Parish of St. Philip's Church 
Charles Towne, Wtlliani Rhett and Henry Housea, ChiircJi 
Wardens.'' It charges them with cash received from Gov- 
ernor Nicholson ; from the former church wardens; from 
"Mr. Joseph Wragg, out of the Sacrament money;" from 
"a legacy for the poor;" &c. It credits them with "cash 
gave for the support of John Newton, turned into the 
streets, ^6." "Ditto Thomas Garrat, sick with the flux, 
;^2.io." "Ditto Mary Mathews, in a poor and miserable 
condition, ;^I5," and so on day by day. We find them col- 
lecting fines "for a man swearing without a book;" paying 
money "for six days working the streets," and "for filling 
up the pond." In 1742 we find these entries — "10 Nov'm' " 
"By Ditto received, from Benjamin Smith a fine recovered 
by Justice Gibbs from Peter Brez, for knocking down Mr. 
Pinckney's negro, £2." "Ditto Mr. Tributed for retailing 
rum on Sunday, los." "Ditto sundry fines received from 
several persons for walking about streets on Sunday during 



18 

divine service, 19s. 6d." The same, April 11, 1743, £i- 5-s 
3d. August 3, 1745, "for a white man beating a negro," 
£2. "August 7, 1747, by ditto of Mr. Gibbs for persons 
beating negroes £6. February 24, 1749, received Coll 
Austin for a white man striking a negro, £2. Ditto James 
Larden, striking a negro £2,'' &c., &c. 

In 1733 Mr. John Laurens, another Huguenot, father of 
Henry Laurens, of Revolutionary fame, is elected Church 
Warden, and on the 9th of April acquaints the Vestry that 
Dr. John Turner was willing to take care of the poor of the 
parish and look after them for i^ioo current money which 
the Vestry agreed to give. On the 5th July 1734 the Ves- 
try signed the tax list for ^1,000 towards the relief and 
maintenance of the poor — in 1738 the tax list is signed for 
^1,534 8s. 3d, &c., &c. 

Li 1734 the Vestry presented a memorial to the Assem- 
bly representing the poor accommodation for the lodging 
and care of the sick and the extravagant charges for the 
same, the trouble of the officers, and the suffering of the 
sick in consequence and ask for the appropriation of so 
much of the square piece of ground belonging to the public 
in Charles Town as might be necessary whereon to erect 
proper buildings for the use of the work house and hos- 
pital, and for authority to erect buildings at their own 
proper charge. August 3, 1738, the Wardens advertised 
that the number of poor and sick suffering from smallpox 
daily increases, and the cost as well as the difficulty in pro- 
viding lodging and nurses is so great that they have hired 
a house and provided proper attention for the reception of 
all such as are the objects of charity. The hospital was 
erected (See Statutes Vol. Vn-90,) and appears to have 
been in operation as we find on March 7, 1748, an advertise- 
ment in the Gazette that Frederick Holzendorff, chi- 
rurgeon, of St. Pliilif s Hospital, in Charles Town, has re- 
moved his residence. 

The death of Mr. Commissary Johnson in 1716 left the 
Bishop of London without a representative in this part of 



19 

his charge. The number of clergymen increasing, the Rev. 
Alexander Garden was appointed by Dr. Gibson, Bishop of 
London, in 1726, his commissary for the Provinces of North 
and South Carolina and the Bahama Islands. We have no 
record of the conduct of the Rev. Gideon Johnson in the 
discharge of his duties as Commissary ; but Commissary 
Garden, we find, held annual visitations regularly in this 
Province. These visitations were in the form of meetings 
of the clergy convened for the purpose, at which each 
clergyman was required to exhibit to the Commissary his 
Letters of Orders and License to perform the ministerial 
office in the Province, and a report of his parochial services. 
A sermon was preached at each of these visitations by some 
one of the clergy appointed for the purpose. The visita- 
tions were held in St. Philip's Church. 

From 1742 we find recorded in the journals of the Vestry 
each year the elections on Monday in Easter week, pur- 
suant to Act of Assembly, not only of the Vestry and 
Wardens of the Church, but of such municipal officers as five 
Commissioners of the Highway, five Commissioners of the 
Market, si.x Packers, five Wood Measurers and five F'ire 
Masters. Thus were the civil and ecclesiastical affairs of 
the town settled at the porch of the church. 

After the establishment of the Free School by the As- 
sembly, December 12, 1712, the school of the Society for 
the Propagation of the Gospel was united with the Pro- 
vincial institution, and the school thus formed was con- 
tinued in connection with St. Philip's Church until the 
Revolution. In the year 1728 the Rev. Mr. Morritt was 
removed from the charge of the school upon his appoint- 
ment to the cure of Prince George's, Winyaw, and the Rev. 
John Lambert, A. M.. was appointed by the Society their 
school master in Charles Town and afternoon preacher at 
St. Philip's Church. He died, however, the following year, 
and was buried in the church yard, where the stone which 
m.arks his grave still stands."^'' In 1736 the parochial 
duties of St. Philip's had so increased that the Rector found 

*See the inscription given in Dalcho's Churcli History, p. 114. 



20 

it impracticable to perform them alone. The Assembly, 
therefore, May 29. 1736, appropriated £so sterling per 
annum, to be increased by such further sum as the people 
might be willing to subscribe, for the support of an assis- 
tant, and upon this provision the Vestry, June 8, 1736, so- 
licited the Bishop of London to recommend and appoint 
some suitable person to assist the Rector in his pastoral 
duties. The Rev. William Orr, A. M., was accordingly 
licensed to perform divine service in this Province, and 
upon his arrival was elected assistant to the Rector. 

An attempt was made in 1739 to obtain "a ring of six 
bells" and a clock for the Church, and the sum of ;^ 1,192 
currency, equal to £\<\() sterling, was raised by subscription 
for the purpose, but the sum was insufficient. Five years 
later the Vestry ordered a good, plain, substantial church 
clock, completely fitted for the steeple, to go for eight 
days, and also a good bell of about 600 weight. They were 
sent, but upon their arrival proved unsatisfactory. The 
stroke of the clock was weak, and the bell, the Vestry said, 
sounded as from a dunghill, and so low that it could not be 
heard at two or three hundred yards. They were returned. 

Two events of interest in connection with St. Philip's 
Church took place in the year 1740, These were the trial 
of the Rev. George VVhitefield by Commissary Garden's 
ecclesiastical court, and the great fire of that year. 

Mr. Whiteficld, who had come out to America to aid 
Oglethrope in the settlement of Georgia, had previously 
been to Charlestown. In August, 1738, while about to em- 
bark for Europe, he had paid a visit to Commissary Garden, 
and, at his request, preached in St. Philip's the next Sun- 
day, morning and evening, and was most cordially thanked 
by him. He returned in 1740, after having had a inost 
wonderful career in England, where his auditpries had often 
consisted of 20,000 persons; but where he had given oc- 
casion to the Bishop of London for publishing a charge to 
his clergy to avoid alike the extreme of enthusiasm and 
lukewarmness. He had come this time by the way of Phil- 



21 

adelphia, and travelling through Pennsylvania, the Jeseys, 
New York and back again to Maryland, Virginia, North 
Carolina and this Province, he had preached all along to 
immense congregations. With Mr. James Habersham's as- 
sistance he had founded an orphan asylum in Georgia, 
which he called I^ethesda ; and the first collection he 
made for it was in the Congregational Church in Charles- 
town — the Circular Church. He had been cordially re- 
ceived in this city (the place, his biographer says, "of 
his greatest success and the greatest opposition") by Com- 
missary Garden on his first visit ; but the enthusiasm, against 
which the Bishop of London had to warn him, led him here 
to disregard canonical obligations, which Commisary Garden, 
charged with the oversight of the clergy in this part of the 
Bishop of London's jurisdiction, deemed it his duty to enforce. 
Being often called upon to preach to large crowds, many 
of whom neither possessed nor knew how to use the Book 
of Common Prayer in public worship, Whitefield departed 
from the rule of his Church, making extempore prayers and 
conducting services without regard to the Prayer Book. 
This Commissary Garden prohibited, and, Whitefield per- 
sisting, he was cited to appear before an ecclesiastical 
court, held in St. Philip's Church on the 15th July, 1740, 
to answer for his conduct. He did not himself appear in 
response to the summons, but Mr. Andrew Rutledge, his 
counsel, appeared for him and protested against the au- 
thority of the Court. The Court overruled the plea to its 
jurisdiction, and Whitefield appealed to the Lord's Com- 
missioners in England, appointed by the King, for hearing 
appeals in spiritual causes from his Majesty's plantation in 
America. The appeal was allowed, but Whitefield did not 
prosecute it ; and after the expiration of the time limited, 
he having procured no prohibition against the Court's pro- 
ceeding, it went on with the case, and, Whitefield failing to 
answer after successive adjournments to allow him an op- 
portunity so to do, judgment of suspension was pronounced 
against him. {Dalcho s Church Hist., 128-1^6.) Unfortunate 
indeed was it for the Church of England that it could at that 



22 

time find no means of availing itself of the great work of 
the Wesleys and of Whitefield ; unhappy indeed that it 
allowed a great and needed revival to end in schism instead 
of reformation.* 

The year 1740 was likewise memorable in the annals of 
South Carolina, for a destructive fire, which broke out in 
Charlestown on Tuesday 1 8th November. It began in a Sad- 
ler's shop on the south side of Broad Street, between Church 
Street and East Bay, about 2 o'clock in the afternoon. The 
houses being generally of wood, and the wind from the 
northwest, the fire raged with uncontrollable fury, and in 
four hours consumed every house south of Broad Street 
besides some on the north side. All the wharves, store- 
houses, and produce were destroyed. The loss was esti- 
mated at nearly one million and a half dollars, and the 
number of houses destroyed at three hundred. Universal 
sympathy was exerted for the distresses of the people. A 
solemn fast was held on Friday, the 28th, and collections 
were made at the Churches for the benefit of the sufferers. 
Subscriptions were likewise opened in town and country, 
and the amount collected, as well as ;^i,5oo appropri- 
ated by the General Assembly and i^20,ooo voted by Par- 
liament, was paid into the hands of the Church War- 
dens of St. Philip's Church to be distributed according 
to their discretion among the sufferers. The minute book 
shows the Vestry and Wardens meeting day after day, re- 
ceiving contributions and distributing to the poor, and as 
late as April, 1741, awarding William Osborne ^100 cur- 
rency towards buying a pilot boat, his having been burnt in 
the time of the fire. 

In 1741 the Rev. Mr. Orr, assistant Minister of St. Philip's, 
was appointed to the mission of St. Paul's Parish ; and the 
Rev. William McGilchrist, who had been sent out by the 

*NoTE — The following is represented as the state of the different re- 
ligious bodies in Carolina in 1740 : 

Episcopalians ~] i ^i} 

Presbyterians, French and other Protestants. ... I To the J 4^ ( to 10. 

Baptists (whole as 1 1 

Quakers J [ 1 



23 

Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, was appointed 
in his place at St. Philip's. 

We find a curious advertisement, by Mr. Garden, in the 
South Carolina Gazette of March ii, 1743. It states that 
the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, having long 
at heart the propagation of the Gospel among the negroes 
and Indian races in his Majest\''s colonies in America, had 
resolved on the following method of pursuing that end, viz : 
by purchasing some country-born negroes, causing them to 
be instructed to read the Bible, and in the chief precepts of 
the Christian religion, and thenceforth employing them as 
school masters for the same instructions of-all negroes and 
Indian children as might be born in the colonies. The ad- 
vertisement goes on to state that in pursuance of this plan 
the Society had purchased, about fifteen months before, 
two such negroes for this service, and assigned one of them 
for Charlestown, who would be sufificiently qualified in a 
few months, and to whom all the negro and Indian children 
of the parish might be sent for education without any 
charge to the masters and owners; and Mr. Garden con- 
cludes with an appeal for a voluntary contribution of ^^400 
currency to build a school house for the purpose, which he 
consents should be put up in a corner of the Glebe land 
near the parsonage. 

This appeal was answered, and in the Gazette of April 
2nd, 1744, Dr. Garden publishes an account of receipts and y 

expenditures in which it appears that he had received con- 
tributions to the amount of £22^. Among the contributors 
were Hon. Charles Pinckney, Joseph VVragg, Robert Pringle, 
Jacob Motte, Col. Othniel Beale, Benjamin Smith and 
Sarah Trott. 

The two negro boys so purchased received the baptismal 
names of Harry and Andrew. The school was established, 
and the experiment tried in the hope that the negroes 
would receive instructions from teachers of their own race 
with more facility and willingness than from white teachers. 
The school was continued for twenty-two years, first under 
the supervision of Commissary Garden, as Rector of St. 



24 

Philip's, then of his successor, the Rev. Mr. Chirke, and then 
of the Rev. Robert Smith, afterwards the first Bishop of 
South Carolina. 

The Rev. Commissary wrote to the Society in 1743 
that the negro school was likely to succeed and con- 
sisted of thirty children. In 1744 upwards of 60 children 
were instructed in it daily, 18 of whom read in the Testa- 
ment, 20 in the Psalter, and the rest in the spelling books. 
In 1746 there were 55 children under tuition, and 15 adults 
were instructec^ in the evening. In 1755 there were 70 chil- 
dren in the school, and books were given for their use. In 
1757 Mr. Clarke informed the Society that the negro school 
in Charleston was flourishing and full of children. The 
Rev. Mr. Smith, during his Rectorship, examined the pro- 
ficiency of the children twice a week, and the school was 
deemed in a flourishing condition. But Andrew, one of 
the teachers, died ; and the other, Harry, "turned out profli- 
gate" — and, as the Society had not invested to any greater 
extent in slaves for educational purposes, they had no other 
black or colored person to take charge of the school and so 
it was discontinued. 

The Gazette of April 30, 1744, contains this interesting 
paragraph : 

"On Thursday (i. e. 26th April) we had a violent storm of lightning, 
thunder and rain here. The lightning has done considerable damage 
to St. Philip's Church, the steeple and organ, and killed Mr. Furniss, 
who was at work in said church hanging one of the bells. Mr. Isaiah 
Burnet (Furniss' partner) was knocked down senseless about half an 
hour, but recovered soon after. One Wilson was also wounded in the 
knee The top of the steeple is much shattered, but where the light- 
ning entered on the north side of the church the holes are not above 
an inch in diameter." 

The Gazette of June iith, 1744, announces another storm, 
and that the lightning again shattered St. Philip's Church 
steeple, and struck the organ in the same spot as when Mr. 
Furniss was killed. It adds that the storm had likewise in- 
jured the Dissenters' Meeting House, and that several 
houses were struck in different parts of the town, yet it did no 



25 

damage. The injury to the steeple and organ could not 
have been very great, however, as we can find in the jour- 
nals no allusion to the incident, 

The health of the Rev. Mr. McGilchrist failing, he gave 
notice to the Vestry of his intention to return to England. 
Whereupon the Vestry applied at once to the Lord Bishop 
of London to send them out another clergyman to fill his 
place, and in their letter they make the statement that "the 
Parish is large, and that the usual auditory in it is six or 
seven hundred people." Mr. McGilchrist was succeeded on 
January 25, 1746, by the Rev. Robert Betham, A. M., but 
he lived a little more than a year after his arrival, dying on 
the 31st May, 1747, and was succeeded July, 6, 1747, by the 
Rev. Samuel Quincy; and he having resigned, the Rev. 
Alexander Keith, Rector of Prince George, Winyaw, suc- 
ceeded him. 

The congregation of St. Philip's outgrew the original 
Church, and had removed as we have seen to the site of the 
present edifice in 1723. In less than thirty years it had 
again outgrown its second edifice. So in 175 1 an Act 
directed "that all that part of Charlestown, situate and 
lying to the southward of the middle of Broad Street 
* * * * , be known by the name of the Parish of St. 
Michael's," and that a church be erected "on or near the 
place where the old Church of St. Philip's, Charlestown, 
formerly stood" at a cost to the public of not more than 
iJ^ 1 7,000 proclamation money. The cornerstone was laid 
February 17. 1752, by his Excellency Governor G!en, which 
ceremony was followed by a grand dinner. The dinner 
over, his Majesty's health was drunk, followed by a discharge 
of the cannon at Granville Hastion ; then the health of the 
Royal F"amily, and the other Royal toasts. The Gazette 
adds: The day was concluded with peculiar pleasure and 
satisfaction. The building of the church did not however 
progress much faster than had that of St. Philip's. The 
first Vestry of St. Michael's was not organized until 1759 
and the first service was not performed until February, 1761. 



26 

The church which still stands is well known for the beaut}' 
of its steeple, and is famed for its chime of bells, alike re- 
markable for their sweetness of tone and romantic history. 
The cost of the church was £53,535 8s. gd. currency of the 
time, about $32,775.87. Of this, ^2 1 ,877 were subscribed for 
pews, and ^^31,656 15s. gd. were granted by the Assembly. 

In the division of the parishes the care of the poor in 
both were left to St. Philip's, and the Church Wardens and 
Vestry of St. Philip's were authorized to assess and collect 
the taxes for the support of the poor as well upon the in- 
habitants of the Parish of St. Michael's as upon the inhab- 
itants of the Parish of .St. Philip's. The representation 
in the General Assembly was equally divided between 
the two Parishes; each was to send a Senator, and three 
Members to the Common House of Assembly. The 
Rev. Alexander Garden, then Rector of St. Philip's, 
was allowed ;£^40 proclamation money in lieu of the per- 
quisites he would lose by the division of the Parish. It 
was provided by the Act that it should be lawful for the in- 
habitants of either of the two Parishes to bury their dead in 
the Church yard of the other Parish. The division was at first 
territorial, and thus it happened that in many families the 
different branches residing in the different parts of the city 
were divided. There was a special provision in the Act 
that no person should own a pew in each Church, unless he 
owned a house in each Parish. {Statutes, Vol. 1^11, yg.) 
Besides their distinctive names (" St. Philip'sJ' and " St. 
Micliacr s") the Churches obtained the appellations of "the 
Old Church," and "the New Church," and St. Michael's 
continued to be familiarly called "The New Church" until 
some time after the burning of " the Old Church" (St. 
Philip's) in 1835. The writer of this, who is among the 
last of those baptized in " the Old Church," was accus- 
tomed to hear St. Michael's called in his family until the 
late war " tJie Nezv Church!'' 

The Rev. Mr. Garden had been Rector of St. Philip's 
thirty-four years when his increasing infirmities compelled 
him to seek relief from laborious duties ; and he gave notice 



27 

to the Vestry that he intended to resi^^n the Rectorship on 
or before the 25th March, 1754 — Mr. Keith, the assistant 
minister, had also given notice of his intention to resign — 
the Vestry thereupon wrote to the Bishop of London, re- 
questing him to send out two clergymen in their room. In 
their letter to the Bishop the V^estry gave the following 
honorable testimony to Mr. Garden's character. 

"We should be greatly wanting in duty should we omit to say that 
Mr. Garden, during his residence of thirty years and more among us, 
has behaved with becoming piety, zeal and candor in his sacred minis- 
try and function, which he hath exercised with unwearied labour and 
diligence, to the glory of God and the edification of souls ; and we can 
with truth aver he hath been a good Shepherd of Christ's flock." 

On Sunday, March 31st, 1754, Mr. Garden preached his 
farewell sermon to a crowded audience at St. Philip's 
Church from Romans x, 1. Dr. Dalcho gives the conclud- 
ing passages of this most touching and eloquent address. 

How different is this character which Commissary Garden 
gives of the people' from that written by his predecessor, 
Commissary Johnson, to the Bishop of London: 

You know (my Brethren) I abhor flattery; it is sinful at all times, 
and would be unpardonable from this sacred place; I am under no 
temptation to it; and therefore shall speak forth only the words of 
trtcth and soberness concerning the Inhabitants of Charles Town when 
I bear this testimony to them, viz: that however as in all other com- 
munities there are many bad Individuals amongst them, too many 
despisers of Religion and Virtue, yet, generally speaking, the most 
substantial and /snowing part are a sober, charitable and religiously 
disposed people. Nor out of this character do I exclude Dissenters of 
any denomination with whom I have always lived in all peace and 
friendship, and who have always treated me with civility and decent 
regard. Would God that there was no Schism, no Dissention amongst 
us; but that all were of one Mind and one Mouth; all united in the 
same Communion of the Church of England : But if this may not be, 
to their own Master, they who dissent, must stand or fall; let us live in 
Peace, friendship and charity towards them. My hope and earnest 
desire of my heart axiA prayer to God for them also is, that they may 
be saved. And moreover I take this opportunity thus publicly to 
declare that there is neither Man, Woman nor Child in the whole 
Province of Carolina with whom I am not in perfect Charity and to 
whom I do not heartily and sincerely wish all happiness, both temporal 
and eternal." 



28 

We can quote in addition only this last passage: 

"Once more, (my beloved Brethren,) /art^iccl/ / May the very God 
of Peace sanctify you wholly; and preserve your whole spirits and 
souls and bodies blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

"May all the blessings of Heaven descend upon all the inhabitants of 
this Province in general ; those of Charles Town in particular ; but 
more especially orv you, the beloved people of my late charge— may the 
ever blessed and glorious Trinity bless you in the city, and in the Field ; 
in the fruit of your Body, the fruit of your Cattle, and the fruit of your 
Ground . Bless you in your Basket ; and in your Store, and in all that 
you set your Hand unto. Bless you with all the temporal blessings of 
Health, of Peace and Prosperity ; but above all, and as the Source of all, 
bless you with truly faithful and obedient Hearts and finally conduct 
you safe to the Blessed Region of Glory and Immortality." 

The Rev. Mr. Garden was beloved, says Dr. Dalcho, by 
the clergy as a father, and greatly esteemed by the con- 
gregation for whose spiritual welfare he had labored so 
many years. The Vestry, Wardens and Parishioners joined 
ill an address, expressing their reverence and love, and pre- 
sented to him a piece^of plate with an engraving upon it of 
the west front of the Church and an appropriate inscrip- 
tion. {^Sec the Address in Dalchd s C/uirch Hist., with names 
thereto, p. 1 71-174.) 

In consequence of the application of the Vestry to the 
Bishop of London, the Rev. Richard Clarke, A. M., and the 
Rev. John Andrews, L. L. B., arrived from England in 1753, 
and were duly chosen Rector and Assistant Minister. Mr. 
Andrews remained but a short time. He resigned Novem- 
ber 9, 1756, and returned to England. Mr. Clarke who 
was a very learned and able theologian, remained until 1759 
when he too returned to England. Mr. Andrews had been 
succeeded as Assistant Minister by the Rev. Robert Smith, 
A. M., Fellow of Caius and Gonville College, Cambridge, 
who now, upon the departure of Mr. Clarke, was chosen 
Rector, in which position he was to remain for forty-two 
years. He had for his first Assistant Minister the Rev. 
Winwood Sergeant, who occupied the position but a very 
short time, and was succeeded by the Rev. Robert Cooper, 
(late Rector of Prince William's Parish) December 10, 1759, 



29 

who in two j^ears was chosen the first Rector of St. 
Micliael's. The Rev. Joseph Dacre Wilton arrived from 
England at the end of 1 761, and was elected assistant Jan- 
uary 9, 1762. He died in 1767, and was buried in the 
church yard. Mr. Wilton was succeeded by the Rev. 
James Crallan, October 14, 1767, who resigned April 25, 
1768. 

The health of Mr. Smith having suffered from the climate, 
he was advised by his physicians to make a voyage to Eng- 
land — the Rev. Mr. Cooper and the Rev. Mr. Hart, of 
St. Michael's, consenting to supply the Church during his 
absence. Mr. Smith remained in England near two years, 
and while there engaged the Rev. Robert Purcell, A. M., as 
Assistant Minister of St. Philip's. This clergyman had 
been curate to the Rector of Shipton-Mallet for eight 
years, and was highly recommended for his talents and piety. 
He arrived in Charlestown June 18, 1769, and on the 12th 
July was elected assistant to the Rector of St. Philip's, a 
position which he filled until 1775, when he returned to 
England to make some arrangements for the Church at 
Shipton-Mallet, where he had left a substitute ; but the war 
breaking out he remained in England and received a pen- 
sion of £100 per aiimun as a Loyalist. 

While in the other colonies most of the clergymen of the 
English Church, and most of the Churchmen, were Tories, 
the very reverse was the case in South Carolina. The leaders 
of the Revolution in this Province were almost all from 
old St. Philip's, and with them the Rev. Robert Smith, the 
Rector, was in hearty accord. Of the party which Christo- 
pher Gadsden assembled under the Liberty Tree, in 1766, 
ten of the twenty-six were his fellow worshippers in the 
old Church, to wit — Wm. Johnson, Joseph Verree, Nathaniel 
Lebby, John Hall, Tunis Tebout, William Trusler, Robert 
Howard, Alexander Alexander, Edward and Daniel Cannon. 
That we are correct in saying that the leaders of the Revo- 
lution were most from St. Philip's will be recognized when 
we recall well known names of those who led the people 



30 

and worshipped in this Church, to ivit — Christopher Gads- 
den, Henry Laurens and his son John, Rawlins Lowndes, 
Col. Charles Pinckney, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, 
Thomas Pinckney, the Rutledges (Edward and Hugh — 
John Rutledge had removed to St. Michael's), Henry Mid- 
dleton and his son Arthur, William Johnson and Daniel 
Cannon. Of the sixty principal citizens of South Carolina, 
upon the fall of Charleston arrested and sent by the British 
in exile to St. Augustine, in violation of their paroles, 
more than a third were from St. Philip's, viz — Christo- 
pher Gadsden, Thomas Ferguson, Peter Timothy, John 
Edwards, Edward Rutledge, Hugh Rutledge, Isaac Holmes, 
William Hasell Gibbes, Alexander Moultrie, John Earnest 
Poyas, Doctor Peter Fayssoux, Edward McCrady, John 
Neufville, William Johnson, Thomas Grimball, Anthony 
Toomer, Robert Cochran, Thomas Hall, Arthur Middle- 
ton, Samuel Prioleau, Jr., Edward Weyman, Henry Crouch, 
and John Splatt Crips. And so it was that, when in the 
outset of the Revolution the Provincial Congress set 
apart the 17th February, 1778, as a day of fasting, hu- 
miliation and prayer, the Commons House of Assembly, 
with the silver Mace (the same which still lies upon the 
Speaker's desk during a session of our present House of 
Representatives) borne before them, went in procession to 
St. Philip's Church, where a pious and excellent sermon was 
preached before them by the Rector, the Rev. Robert 
Smith, for which he received the thanks of the body. Mr. 
Smith continued to officiate during the Revolution until 
Charlestown fell into the hands of the British, when he was 
banished to Philadelphia and his property confiscated. The 
Rev, Charles Frederick Moreau took charge of the Church 
during the British occupancy of the city. 

The Rev. Robert Smith, upon his return from exile after 
the Revolution, in May, 1783, was joyfully welcomed by 
the inhabitants of Charlestown generally. St. Philip's in 
particular gladly hailed the arrival of their honored and be- 
loved minister. The deranged state of the finances of the 
Church at this period, as well as of his own estate which 



31 

had been sequestered by the British, made it necessary 
for him to add to the great and multipHed labors 
of his pastoral function the arduous and anxious 
responsibility of tuition. He organized an academ}^ 
for which he spared neither trouble nor expense in ob- 
taining the best qualified classical teachers, and which 
afterward, upon the passage of an Act establishing the 
Charleston ("oUege in 1785, became incorporated with 
that institution, of which he was appointed the prin- 
cipal. It was also, says Dalcho, through his unwearied ex- 
ertions that the Vestries of St. Philip's and St. Michael's 
were led to associate in a convention for the purpose of 
sending delegates to a General Convention of the Episco- 
pal Church in the United States. This was the beginning 
of the Diocesan Convention, or Council as it is now called, 
in South Carolina. He attended the General Convention 
held in 1786 at Wilmington, Delaware. In 1789 Mr. 
Smith received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from 
the University of Pennsylvania. In 1795 he was elected 
the first Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in 
South Carolina, and was consecrated at Christ Church, 
Philadelphia, on the 13th September of that year. Bishop 
Smith established the precedent of remaining pastor, not- 
withstanding his elevation to the episcopate, which was 
followed by his three successors in office. In 1786 the Rev. 
Thomas Frost arrived from England, whence he had come 
at the invitation of Dr. Smith as his assistant, and remained 
in that station until the death of Bishop Smith in 1801 
when he became Rector, but unhappily survived only until 
1804. 

The Revolution had left the Church in an anomalous 
condition. Under the law of England the "parson" or 
Rector was a corporation sole, in whom the property of the 
Church was vested. But the Church had been disestablished 
by the Constitution of 1778; and the title to the property 
formerly vested in the parson was a matter of legal ques- 
tion. [It does not appear that any division of the Glebe 



32 

lands given by Mrs. Affra Coming had been made between 
St. Philip's and St. Michael's Churches upon the creation of 
St. Michael's Parish, but the interest of St. Michael's in them 
was recognized.] To meet this condition of affairs, in 1785 
an Act was passed incorporating the Vestries and Church 
Wardens of the two Parishes into one corporate body, with 
power to hold and dispose of the lands and other property 
then vested in the said Churches or any other they might 
acquire. {Statutes S, J^o/. 168.) This arrangement did not, 
however, work well, and so in 1791 the Vestries and Wardens 
of the two Churches obtained from the Legislature another 
Act making the two Churches separate and distinct bodies 
politic and corporate. {Ibid. 16S.) Before the passage of 
this Act an agreement had been entered into by the two 
Churches for a division of the Glebe lands. This agree- 
ment was confirmed by the Act separating the Churches. 
It was not, however, until the year 1797 that a formal deed 
of partition was executed by the two bodies. In this di- 
vision St. Philip's Church obtained the greater quantity of 
land, most of which, however, was at the time vacant and 
unimproved ; while St. Michael's obtained most of the im- 
proved property with a more regular income. 

By the State Constitution of 1790 Charleston, including 
the two Parishes of St. Philip's and St. Michael's, was made 
one election precinct, with fifteen members of the House 
of Representatives — and two Senators, one for each of the 
Parishes. This was the origin of the allowance of two Sen- 
ators to the City of Charleston, which continued until the 
Constitution of 1895. The Senators and Representatives 
were styled from the Parishes of St. Philifs and St. Michael's, 
not from Charleston. 

When Mr. Frost became Rector in 1801, the Rev. Peter 
Manigault Parker, the first native born South Carolinian to 
enter the ministry of the Church, became Assistant Minister, 
but lived only about a year after. Upon the death of Mr. 
Frost the Rev. George Pogson, Rector of St. James Goose 
Creek, officiated during that summer; and then the Rev. 
Edward Jenkins, Rector of St. Michael's, was called, and ac- 



cepted the charge of St. Phih'p's December 2, 1804, and the 
Rev. William Percy was elected a temporary or third Min- 
ister of St. Philip's and St. Michael's conjointly. In the 
Spring of 1807 Dr. Jenkins w^ent to England, leaving the 
Rev. James Dewar Simons to officiate during his absence. 
Dr. Jenkins resigned the next year, and Mr. Simons was 
elected Rector August 7, 1809. T^^^Q Rev. Christopher 
Edwards Gadsden, Minister of St. John's Berkeley, was 
elected assistant December 21, 1809, when Dr. Percy ceased 
to officiate at St. Philip's. The Rev. Mr. Simons died May 
27, 1 8 14, and Mr. Gadsden became Rector. The Rev. 
Thomas D. Frost, son of the Rector, became Assistant 
Minister March 12, 1815, and died May 16, 1819. The Rev. 
Alston Gibbs officiated the remainder of the year. 

St. Philip's Church had escaped the great fires which had 
devastated the city in 1740, 1778, 1796, and in 18 10. In 
that of 1796 the French Protestant Church, but a short dis- 
tance from it, was burned, and the steeple of St. Philip's 
was on fire but was saved by the gallant conduct of a 
negro man who climbed to the burning shingles and tore 
them off, for which service he obtained his freedom. It 
had only escaped these great conflagrations to be destroyed 
at last in one of much smaller extent, on Sunday morn- 
ing, February 14, 1835. ^^ take the following account of 
its destruction from The Courier, of February 16, 1835 : 

* * * "The most striking feature of this calamity is the destruc 
tion of St. Philip's Church, commonly known as the Old Church. The 
venerable structure, which has for more than a century (having been 
built in 1723) towered among us in all the solemnity and noble pro- 
portions of antique architecture, constituting a hallowed link between 
the past and the present, with its monumental memorials of the beloved 
and honored dead, and its splendid new organ (which cost $4,500), is 
now a smoking ruin. Although widely separated from the burning 
houses by the burial ground, the upper part of the steeple, the only 
portion of it externally composed of wood, took fire from the sparks 
which fell upon it in great quantities. It is much to be regretted that 
preventive measures had not been taken in season to save the noble and 
consecrated edifice. The flames slowly descending wreathed the 
steeple, constituting a magnificent spectacle and forming literally a 
pillar of fire, and finally enwrapped the whole body of the church in its 



34 

enlarged volume. The burning of the body of the church was the 
closing scene of the catastrophe. In 1796 it was preserved by a negro 
man who ascended it and was rewarded with his freedom for his peril- 
ous exertions, and again in 1810 it narrowly escaped the destructive 
fire of that year, which commenced in the house adjoining the Church 
yard on the north. 

"We have been informed that the only monument of the interior of 
the church which was not totally destroyed is one that with an acci- 
dental appropriateness bears the figure of grief." 

The Rev. John Johnson, D. D., the present Rector of St. 
Philip's Church, in his sermon preached on Sunday, August 
9, 1874, in commemoration of the one hundred and fiftieth 
year of the occupation of the present site of the church for 
divine service, speaking of the Rectorship of the "dear 
old Dr. Gadsden,'' says: 

"It is his ministry also which really bridges over a great chasm in 
the history of the Parish. I mean the destruction of the Old Church 
by fire, and the worshipping by the congregation in a temporary frame 
building erected in the middle of the western church yard. Dr. Gads- 
den had been your Rector for twenty-one years, when on that fatal 
Sunday morning in February, of the year 1835, the flakes of the fire 
from the north of us caught the dry wood work of our steeple, and the 
flames descending wrapt the Church of so many consecrated affections, 
until despite all efforts ' our holy and once beautiful house where our 
•fathers praised God, was burned up with fire, and all our pleasant 
things laid waste.' 

" It is not too much to say that never before or since in the history of 
this city has the loss of a public building been attended with more 
poignant sorrow and mourning than that of old St. Philip's Church. 
To show how general the feeling in our community, our congregation 
had places of worship offered them by many of their fellow Christians 
of all denominations. And one occurrence during the fire was made 
the subject of some lines by, it is thought, Mr. Charles Fraser, once an 
honored citizen but not of our flock. 

" I can remember only the spectacle of the burning at a distance, and 
the sounds of grief that were close by me as I watched the flames, but 
knew not how to estimate in my childhood such a loss. 

" Men talked of speedily replacing it, but it could never be done; in 
its most sacred associations and its time hallowed adornments we 
knew there could be but one 'Old St. Philip's.' Such losses laugh to 
scorn insurance money. Such ruins when they fall shake the very 
ground of our lives, and strew with ashes our bruised and desolated 
hearts. How while the ruins were still smoking on that Sunday morn- 
ing the affected flock were gathered by their Shepherd as well as they 



35 

could be, in the old Sunday School building to the east of us, and how 
to a weeping congregation, he preached Christ's own message of com- 
fort and consolation," &'C. 

It was really with remarkable energy and liberality that 
the present church was built. For those times were, like 
the present, in a most depressed condition. In answer to 
objections to public aid in the rebuilding of the church, 
because it was said the congregation was a rich corporation, 
the Vestry state, in the Southern Patriot, of the 19th Feb- 
ruary, 1835, that in the last few years some of the building 
leases of the Glebe lands having expired the Vestry were 
obliged to pay for the improvements upon them, when, 
from the depreciation of property, the land and buildings 
could scarcely be sold (in some cases) for the sums which 
they had to pay for the buildings alone. This, it will be re- 
membered, was just before the great financial panic of 1837. 
Notwithstanding this. Dr. Johnson points out that on the 
I2th of November of that year the corner-stone of the new 
building was laid with appropriate ceremonies ; the first 
service under its roof was held on a fast day, the 3rd May, 
1838; and the church was consecrated by Bishop Bowen 
on the 9th day of November, 1838. 

The author is indebted to the Rev. Dr. Johnson for 
the following interesting account of the rebuilding of the 
church : 

" Soon after the destruction of the second church by fire, 
on the 14th February, 1835. the present edifice was planned 
and its corner-stone was laid 12th November, 1835. The 
architect was Mr. J. Hyde. Built of brick on the same 
foundations, except with extension of twenty-two or 
twenty-three feet to the eastward, or chancel end, the 
ground plan of the new church was nearly the same as that 
of the old one. The differences were as follows: The floor 
was raised u.bave ground about three feet ; steps of stone 
being used to ascend to the three porches at the west end 
of the building, and to the two door-ways central on the 



36 

side walls; a chancel, recessed about fifteen feet, and 
lighted with a wide and lofty window, proved an important 
addition to the interior; the two side-aisles were put im- 
mediately next to the side walls; one hundred and two 
pews on the floor provided five hundred and fifty sittings, 
while sixty-six in the galleries, reached by stairs in the ves- 
tibule, provided two hundred and fifty more, making ac- 
commodations, without crowding, for upwards of eight hun- 
dred persons. But, with seats arranged along the aisles 
and in the vestibule, as has been done for special occasions, 
the capacity of the church may be assumed as about twelve 
hundred sittings. So, in regard to its external appearance, 
the nciv differs not greatly from the old building. The 
three characteristic porches, north, south and west, were re- 
peated, each with four columns supporting entablature and 
pediment. As before, a stately square tower, rising above 
these porches into a steeple of octagonal section, dominates 
the building. Rut, continued upwards, as the former was 
not, into a spire two hundred feet high, after the design of 
Edward B. White, architect, the steeple is surmounted by 
a plain gilded cross. 

" So great was the love of the congregation for their old 
church-building, that they entertained for a while no other 
thought than to reproduce, as far as possible, the edifice 
they had lost. But within a year, other counsels pre- 
vailed ; and the new plans, as has been seen, departed in 
some important particulars from the old. Both structures 
retained the interior features of the Georgian period of 
London church architecture, viz., galleries for congregation 
and choir, the latter over the entrance to the middle aisle, 
and a high pulpit adapted to the galleries. 

"The same orders of architecture also were retained within 
and without, but with modifications that were improve- 
ments. Thus, the massive, square piers that supported 
the old church, that gave it some grandeur, and, faced with 
fluted pilasters bearing fine sculptured memorial tablets, 
some grace also, were not repeated because they darkened 
the interior, and interfered seriously with vision and hear- 



37 

ing. The Doric order of the later (Roman) period gave 
rule, measure, and proportion to the exterior of the new 
church, so that the columns, pilasters and entablatures 
without the building represent very correctly, in all but 
the ornaments^^ of capital and frieze, the order they illus- 
trate. The interior of the sacred edifice is finished in the 
Corinthian order of architecture, and is the only specimen 
in the city of that order, with all the rich ornaments of the 
later, or Roman, period. f These are executed, for the 
most part, in stucco, but the capitals of the columns are of 
carved wood. The roof and galleries are supported by 
eight fluted columns, four on each side, rising from pedes- 
tals of the same level as the rail of the pews to the height 
of twenty feet above the floor. There, these columns, fin- 
ished with their appropriate capitals, meet the line of the 
entablature, not extended in the usual way from column to 
column, but circumscribed above each column, so as to 
produce, with the overhanging cornice, the effect of a 
higher and larger capital, which, of course, it is not. This 
departure from conventional design is something almost in 
the way of a ''jeu cV espi'itT But it has its reason in the 
precedent of one of the finest London churches, designed 
by James Gibbs. architect, 1/21, and the express wish of 
the Charleston congregation to secure, thereby, the light 
and airy effect of the English prototype. 

"At a meeting of the congregation of St. Philip's, 27th 
June, 1836, it was Resolved, "That the heavy pillars of the 
interior of the church be dispensed with, and that in lieu 
thereof, Corinthian columns (as far as practicable) after the 
style of St. Martin's in the Fields, London, be adopted." 
And again, Resolved, "That the pillars of the plans pre- 
sented be lowered, so as to reduce the arches." These 
arches were the motive of the whole scheme. Springing 
longitudinally from the square of cornice above each col- 



*These appear in the columns, and on the frieze, of the Market Hall, 
Charleston. 

|The earliest (Grecian) Corinthian column is seen in the colonnade of 
the Charleston Hotel. 



38 

umn, at an altitude of about twenty-five feet, and rising at 
their crown to a level of thirty-six feet above the floor, 
these fine arches on each side support the roof, and contri- 
bute no little to the beauty of the interior, lifting the eye 
above the columns and galleries to the topmost height of 
the main arched ceiling of the church, forty-two or three feet 
above the floor. The crown of each arch is ornamented 
with a cherub's head and wings in stucco, while, in the space 
of the spandrels, between the shoulders of the arches, 
the same material is used for the display of the acanthus 
ornamentation. The unbroken entablature is seen in the 
chancel where it passes from one pilaster to another, but is 
again broken by the head of the high, stained-glass window. 
Above the cornice of the chancel, the coved ceiling is 
ribbed and paneled with rosettes in stucco. On either side 
of the chancel, the walls are enriched by tablets, inscribed 
with "the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Ten Command- 
ments." The Holy Table, saved from the old church while 
it was burning down, still continues to be used in the ser- 
vices, an emblem of union and communion between the 
generations of St. Philip's, past, present and future. A ves- 
try-room has been built in recent years in the northeastern 
angle of the church. 

Dimensions of the Exterior. 

Extreme length of building, not including the western porch. .120 feet 
Extreme width of building, not including the south and north 

porches 62 " 

Projection of porches 12 " 

Height of walls on sides 35 " 

Height of ridge of roof 45 " 

Height of steeple 200 ' ' 

Dimensions of the Interior. 

Extreme length of church 114 feet 

Depth of chancel 9 " 

Width of chancel 24 " 

Extreme width of church : 56 " 

Height of galleries (upper rail) 14 " 

Extreme height of ceiling 42 " 

Width of vestibule 20 " 



39 

"The cost of the new church, as reported to the congre- 
gation, 15th July, 1839, ^^^s $84,206.01. The subsequent 
expense of erecting a steeple must have raised the total 
cost to nearly $100,000."* 

At the time of the burning of the Old Church the ardent, 
gifted and lamented Daniel Cobia was Assistant .Minister. 
His ministry was brief; of but three years; it was almost 
entirely spent in the temporary building called the Taber- 
nacle. His eloquent voice was not heard in the present 
edifice — he died in 1837, and was succeeded by the Rev. 
Abraham Kaufman, whose ministry was equally brief, 
whom all had begun to admire, and sorrowed thus to lose. 
Tablets to their memories lie at the foot of the chancel in 
the present church. The Rev. John Barnwell Campbell 
succeeded Mr. Kaufman as Assistant Minister in 1740, 
serving for twelve years in that station. 

Upon the death of Mr. Calhoun the City Council of 
Charleston unanimously passed a resolution that, in their 
opinion, the City of Charleston, the chief metropolis of the 
State, might with propriety ask for herself the distinction 
of being selected as the final resting place of that illustrious 
man, and that the Mayor, in behalf of the Council and the 
citizens of Charleston, should communicate with the family 
of the deceased and earnestly entreat that the remains of 
him they loved so well should be permitted to repose 
among them. This request was acceded to ; the body was 
brought to this city and received with the grandest, the 
most imposing and solemn ceremonies. St, Philip's Church 
yard was at once designated as the temporary resting place. 
There were two reasons for this selection. First, the close 
historic connection of the church with the commonwealth 
of which Calhoun was the greatest product; and, secondly, 
there was a peculiar fitness in the circumstance that Bishop 
Gadsden, the Rector of St. Philip's, had been a class-mate 

*On the inside walls of the present church are monumental tablets to 
Bishop Christopher E. Gadsden, the Rev. William Dehon, William 
Mason Smith, and Mrs. Mary Ann Elizabeth Cogdell— and in the vesti- 
bule is one to Maj. Gen. William Moultrie, erected by the Society of 
the Cincinnati. 



40 

of the great man at Yale College. And so we read in the 
account of that grand funeral pageant : 

•'The next day, the 26th April, i. e. the day after the reception of tlie 
body and its lying in state in the City Hall, was appointed for the re- 
moval of the remains to the tomb. At early dawn the bells resumed 
their toll ; business remained suspended, and all the evidences of public 
mourning were continued. 

"At 10 o'clock a civic procession, under the direction of the Marshal, 
having been formed, the body was then removed from the catafalque 
in the City Hall and borne on a bier by the guards of honor to vSt. 
Philip's Church; on reaching the Church, which was draped in the 
deepest mourning, the cortege proceeded up the central aisle to a stand 
covered with black velvet, upon which the bier was deposited. After 
an anthem sung by a full choir, the Right Reverend Dr. Gadsden, 
Bishop of the Diocese, with great feeling and solemnity, read 'the burial 
service, to which succeeded an eloquent fimeral discourse by the Rev. 
Mr. Miles.* The holy rites ended, the body was again borne by the 
guard of honor to the western cemetery of the Church to the tomb 
erected for its temporary abode, a solid structure of masonry raised 
above the surface and lined with cedar wood. Near by, pendant from 
the tall spar that supported it, drooped the flag of the Union, its folds 
mournfully sweeping the verge of the tomb as swayed by the passing 
wind, enwrapped in the pall that first covered it on reaching the shores 
of Carolina. The iron coffin, with its sacred trust, was lowered to its 
resting place, and the massive slab, simply inscribed with the name 
'Calhoun,' adjusted to its position." 

It was ultimately decided that there was no fitter place 
in the State for the repose of Mr. Calhoun's remains than 
where they had been laid ; and that there they should re- 
main. It being feared during the late war that, if the 
city should fall into the enemy's hands, despite might 
be done to the remains of him who was regarded as the 
great apostle of Southern rights, and whose doctrines, it 
was said, had brought on the war, his tomb was quietly and 
secretly opened, and the cof^n containing them removed to 
another place in the eastern church yard where they re- 
mained until the war was over, when they were as quietly 
restored to the original tomb. 

In December, 1883. Mr. Charles Inglesby, a member of 
St. Philip's Church, then a Representative in the State 
Legislature from Charleston, introduced a Joint Resolution 



*Rev. James W. Miles. 



41 

appropriating funds for the construction and -erection of a 
Sarcophagus upon the grave. The Resolution recited that: 

"AVhereas, upon the announcement in March, 1S50, of the lamented 
death of the late Senator John C. Calhoun, the State of South Carolina 
claimed the privilege of taking into its custody his remains, and did 
cause them to be removed, with the highest public honors, to the City 
of Charleston for burial ; 

"And whereas, for want ot time it was only then possible to erect a 
temporary structure in which Senator Calhoun's remains could be de- 
posited ; 

"And whereas, by reason of the many public disabilities since ac- 
cruing, which have prevented the intended action of the General As- 
sembly in the construction of an appropriate sarcophagus of enduring 
material, suitably inscribed, in which the remains of South Carolina's 
distinguished son may be forever preserved ; 

And whereas, the time is now opportune for discharging this high 
public duty." 

With this recital the Joint Resolution was passed unan- 
imously, appropriating the sum of three thousand dollars 
for the "erecting in St. Philip's Church yard, in the City of 
Charleston, of a sarcophagus for the remains of John C. 
Calhoun, which are there buried." {i8lh Stat, of S. C.,66[.) 
With the sum so appropriated the sarcophagus was erected.* 
Dr. Johnson kindly furnishes this description of the tomb: 

THE SARCOPHAGUS OF CALHOUN. 

"Situated in the centre of the western cemetery of St. 
Philip's Church, and in direct extension of the line of its 
length from east to west, this sarcophagus h^lds the mortal 
remains of South Carolina's great statesman. It is built of 
polished granite, rising from a base of 10 by 6 feet to a total 

* "The massive slab, simply inscribed with the name 'Calhoun' " — 
which (so grand in its simplicity) marked the temporary tomb and 
had to be moved to make way for the State's Sarcophagus — is fixed in 
vertical position against the south wall of St. Philip's Sunday School 
Building, in the northeast corner of the eastern cemetery, and bears 
the following additional inscription: 

" T/iis marble for thirty four years covered the tomb of CALHO UN 
in the Western Churchyard. It has been pjaced here by the Vestty, 
near the spot where his remains were iiiterred durittg the siege of 
Charleston, from whic/i spot they were afterwards removed to the 
oris^inal tomb, and subsequently deposited under the Sarcophagus 
erected on the same site in 1SS4 by the State." 



42 

height of lo feet. The iron cofifin rests between the spaces 
prepared for it in the base just mentioned, and in a 
heavy block, 4 by 8 feet, superimposed upon it. Four hiphly 
polished columns, one at each angle of the superstructure, 
support a solid mass of entablature and pediment, covering 
and finishing the structure in rectangular dimensions, some- 
what less than those of the base first described. The in- 
scriptions are as follows: 

[North Side.] 
Erected by the State op vSouth Carolina. 

[South Side.] 

JOHN CALDWELL CALHOUN. 

Born March 18, 1782. 

Died March 31, 1850. 

[East Side.] 

Representative in the Legislature. 

Member of Congress. 

United States Senator. 

[West Side.] 

Secretary of War. 

Vice-President. 

Secretary of vState. 

A beautiful and vigorous Magnolia tree, planted near the 
sarcophagus, on the western side, rises some thirty feet 
above it ; and. perenniall}' green, typifies the undying repu- 
tation of the man, as well as the unchanging affection of 
the people who were most dear to him." 

Upon the death of Bishop Gadsden, in 1852, the Rev. 
John Barnwell Campbell became Rector; and the Rev. Chris- 
topher V. Gadsden, the deceased Bishop's nephew, became 
Assistant Minister, remaining as such for six years, when 
lie became Rector of St. Luke's. Mr. Campbell resigned in 
1858, and in 1859 the Rev. William R. Dehon became Rec- 
tor, and the Rev. W. B. W. Howe Assistant Minister. Mr. 



43 

Dehon died in 1862, and Mr. Howe succeeded him as Rector 
in 1863. 

When the steeple of St. Philip's Church was completed, 
early in the decade of the fifties, a clock, with a chime of 
bells attached so as to ring tunes by the clock work, was 
presented to the church by Mr. Colin Campbell, of Beau- 
fort, S. C, an uncle of the then incumbent Rector, the Rev. 
John Barnwell Campbell. The bells were taken down in 
the beginning of the war and given to the Confederate Gov- 
ernment to be cast into cannon. 

During the late war the steeples of St. Philip's and St. 
Michael's, the most conspicuous objects in the city from a 
distance, served ay targets for the great guns with which 
the city was bombarded. St. Philip's suffered particu- 
larly. Ten or more shells entered its walls. The chancel was 
destroyed, the roof pierced in several places, and the organ 
demolished, 

The congregation had continued to worship in the church, 
after the bombardment had begun, until the 19th Novem- 
ber, 1863, that day being a Thanksgiving Day, when, during 
the delivery of the sermon by the Rector, a shell fell and 
burst near the church. It was during this time that the 
Rector, the Rev. W. B. VV. Howe, so endeared himself to 
the congregation and community at large. The Rev. Dr. 
Johnson, the present Rector of the church — himself the 
Engineer Ofificer of Fort Sumter, by whose skill, patient 
labor and bravery the crumbliitg walls of the fort were 
rendered tenable — thus speaks of Mr. Howe's conduct 
at this time : 

" Upon the background of the political troubles, the exciting times, 
the agitated feelings of that period, Mr. Howe ministered with a calm 
unswerving fidelity, a gentle tact, a good judgment, a firm hold on the 
people's affections. While some flocks scattered, and some shepherds 
left the threatened and beleaguered city to minister to the refugees in 
the interior of the State, the Rector of St. Philip's hesitated not to 
stay here from the beginning to the ending of the war in active 
discharge of the duties of his station. Though the congregation con- 
tinued to be large, he found time to visit assiduously the sick and 
wounded in the hospitals. Though the sound of battle grew nearer 



44 

from Port Royal to James Island in 1861 and 1862, and the smoke of 
battle hung around our harbor in the spring and summer of 186'5, the 
regular services of the church were maintained in this building. And 
it was not until the autumn of 1863, that, while the Rector was 
preaching one Sunday in his pulpit, a shell fired upon the city from the 
enemy's batteries on Morris Island, was heard to fall and explode in 
the western church yard. The congregation sat until the sermon was 
concluded in the regular time and manner. But from that date the 
religious services at St. Philip's were discontinued, the doors were 
shut, the damages of the bombardment proceeded, and the building 
came in for its share of them." 

Bursting shells drove also the congregations of St. 
Michael's and Grace away from their churches, and they, 
with the congregation of St. Philip's, united for worship, on 
Advent Sunday, 1863, in the spacious Church of St. Paul's. 
Here the Rev. Mr. Howe, in connection with the Rev. Mr. 
Keith and the Rev. Mr. Elliott, Minister and Assistant 
Minister of St. Michael's, ministered the consolations of the 
Gospel to a large flock until the first Sunday in Lent, March 
5, 1865. 

Mr. Howe, then alone remaining in charge of the mixed 
congregation, upon the fall of the city was required by the 
Federal military authorities to pray for the President of the 
United States. This his allegiance to the Confederate 
Government forbid as long as the war continued ; and, like 
one of his predecessors in the Rectorship of St. Philip's and 
also in the Bishopric of the Diocese, he was banished from 
the city. Bishop Smith was banished from the city for refus- 
ing to use the prayer for the King of England ; Bishop 
Hozvc was banished for refusing to use the prayer for the 
President of the United States. 

Upon the return of the members of the congregation, at 
the end of the war, steps were at once taken to repair the 
church, so far at least as to allow services to be resumed. 
The Vestry, which had been elected at Easter, 1864, held 
over, and at once took steps to this end. Mr. James T. 
VVelsman, a member of the congregation, most generously 
advanced the money necessary ; and divine service was re- 
sumed in the church, after an interval of two years and nearly 



45 

four months, on Sunday, the 4th March, 1866, with a large 
congregation then and there assembled. Upon this occasion 
Rev. Mr. Howe, the Rector, preached a most eloquent ser- 
mon from the text: " I am the Lord, I change not; there- 
fore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed," Malachi iii, 6, in 
which he thus touchingly and manfully referred to the 
events which had occurred since the congregation had sepa- 
rated, after the service on that memorable Thanksgiving 
Day, in 1863, when the enemy's shells were falling around 
them : 

" Beloved brethren, we who are here present before God have all of 
us met of late some of the great problems of life, not in the schools of 
the philosophers, or in the verses of the poet, or in the pages of the 
historian, or in the experiences of others, but in our own persons, and 
that, too, eye to eye, and face to face. Is it not a cause for congratula- 
tion, then, that not our faith, nor our love, nor our knowledge, which 
may fail in the 'hour and power of darkness' is to be our stay and sup- 
port, but our Heavenly Father, who is greater than all, and who will 
not permit 'tribulation or distress, or persecution or famine, or naked- 
ness or peril, or sword,' to pluck us out of our great Redeemer's hands? 
Yes, it is the unchangeable faithfulness of our God toward His people — 
unchangeable in all the vicissitudes of life, and faithful where all else 
is false — which can alone in seasons of great trial enable us to come off 
conquerors; and it is to this faithfulness, therefore, that I would now 
especially point you. I wish, before I conclude, to contemplate my 
text in relation to our immediate present and to the past four years. 
My own absence from you for a twelve month, and the re-assembling of 
the congregation for the first time after the lapse of more than two 
years within these hallowed and dear walls, so sadly eloquent of days 
that are past, must be my excuse, if any is needed, for handling at this 
time and place our grievous wounds, and which, if I uncover for a mo- 
ment, God knows it is not to 'put a tongue in them that should move the 
stones of Rome to mutiny,' but to heal them, if they may be healed. 
At all events, I will pour upon them the only wine and oil that in my 
heart I believe can heal them. 

" Shall I then seek to persuade you of a brilliant future, and in it 
ask you to forget the past ? Shall I ask you to transfer your affections 
from the Union of our Fathers to one which asserts a French Republi- 
canism ? Brethren, I will be guilty of no such quackery as this. I pray 
that a prosperous future may be in store for us, if God wills, and will 
labor together with you to bring it to pass ; but even the prospects of 
such a future cannot heal those who in the late war contended for prin- 
ciples more than for results. How then, as Christian men, shall we 
view present results ? Shall we view them as condemning the cause 



46 

for which we prayed and suffered and died, and as proclaiming it to be 
an unrighteous cause ? For one I am this day as satisfied of its just- 
ness, consonance with previous American principles, as when I last 
spoke to you from this pulpit, and you listened in your present places 
while shells from distant cannon burst around us. It is due to the 
living, who entered upon that contest sincerely, and who still feel that 
its merits are unaffected by results, to say thus much ; and it is due also 
to our gallant dead, who did not count their lives dear unto themselves, 
to say it. History indeed will do them justice as she weighs in impar- 
tial balance the cause for which they fell ; but it ill becomes us to put 
a seal upon our lips and delegate to the future their vindication ; but 
now, this day, and all the days of our lives, to say of them what Peri- 
cles said from the bema, outside the walls of Athens, over those Athe- 
nians who fell in the first year of the Peloponnesian war : ' Therefore, 
in behalf of such a city as Athens is, these men, whose bones we have 
laid in yonder mound, died fighting bravely, rightly judging that she 
ought not to be robbed of all that made her glorious. Let us who survive, 
like them, be willing to suffer for her sake.' Not a whit behind these 
countrymen of Pericles were our fathers and husbands and brothers 
and sons who now sleep upon many a battlefield in these once fair, but 
now desolated Southern States, and who, like the children of Athens 
more than two thousand years ago, fell fighting bravely in behalf of 
the traditions of their fathers, of Southern civilization, and of the 
rights of self-government. That they fell in behalf of the weaker side 
cannot tarnish their fair fame. Rather do we who survive feel that in 
their graves lie buried beyond a resurrection the fruits of ancestral 
toil, and all that once made us proud of the name of American," &c., &c. 

The church-building had been repaired only sufficiently 
to allow the services to be resumed, and in 1877 it became 
necessary to have a complete and thorough reparation and 
restoration of the edifice. This was undertaken and ac- 
complished at large expense. But by economy and careful 
management so successfully were the affairs of the church 
conducted, that not only had all the expense of restoration 
been met and discharged, but the congregation had, at a 
cost of $11,000.00, purchased a building adjoining the 
eastern church yard, on the south, which had been an 
hotel, and converted it into a Church Home for indigent 
ladies of the congregation — -when another terrible calamity 
befell. The Vestry of the Church had had a meeting on 
the afternoon of the 31st August, 1886, at which time the 
reports of the committees showed that all debts incurred 
by the restoration from its injuries in the war, and upon all 



47 

other accounts, excepting one still remaining from the orig- 
inal building of the church, which was amply secured, had 
been fully paid and discharged, when in a few hours the 
church was again in ruins from the appalling earthquake of 
that night. The walls were cracked, the west porch des- 
troyed, the north and south porches shattered, the roof was 
broken through by the fall of iron columns and bricks from 
the steeple, the galleries dislocated, the chancel walls were 
cracked. The steeple was very much injured, the iron col- 
umn and brick arches in the lantern were thrown down. 
The cost of repairing the building from this second disaster 
was little less than $20,000. 

The following named clergymen have gone forth from St. 
Philip's Church, most of whom, were baptized at her font : 
The Reverends Peter Manigault Parker, James Dewar 
Simons, Christopher Edwards Gadsden (Bishop), Alston 
Gibbs, Paul Trapier Gervais, Edward Rutledge, Thomas D. 
Frost, Edward Neufville, Maurice Harvey Lance, Francis 
H. Rutledge (Bishop), Philip Gadsden, Alexander Marshall, 
Edward Phillips, Daniel Cobia, Charles Cotesworth Pinck- 
ney, Jr., James Maxwell Pringle, Christopher P. Gadsden, 
Roberts Poinsett Johnson. P. F. Stevens, James W. Miles, 
Edward R. Miles, Lucien C. Lance, Henry L. Phillips, 
Thomas F. Gadsden, J. Mercier Green, John Johnson, F, 
Marion Hall, William H. Moreland, Edward McCrady,^^ and 
J. W. Cantey Johnson. 

The following is a list of the Clergy of the Church for 
two hundred and seventeen years. During all of this time 
it will be observed that there have been but sixteen Rec- 
tors, and what is more remarkable that the joint terms of 
four of these cover a period of one hundred and thirty-five 
years, to wit : Commissary Garden, 35 years ; Bishop Smith, 
42 years ; Bishop Gadsden, 32 years ; and the present Rec- 
tor, Dr. Johnson, 26 years. There have been during that 
time twenty-four Assistant Ministers. 



*The son of Prof. John McCrady. 



48 

Rectors. 

Atkin Williamson i68o- 

Samuel Marshall 1696- 

Edward Marston 1699- 

Richard Marsden 1 705- 

Gideon Johnson (Commissary) 1707- 

Alexander Garden (Commissary) 1719- 

Richard Clarke 1755- 

Robert Smith (First Bishop of So. Ca.) I759- 

Thomas Frost 1801- 

Edward Jenkins 1804- 

James Dewar Simons 1809- 

Christopher E. Gadsden (Bishop) 1814- 

John Barnwell Campbell , 1852- 

William Dehon 1 859- 

William B. W. Howe (Bishop) 1863- 

John Johnson (the present incumbent) 1872 

Assistant Ministers. 

Thomas Morritt ^1^1- 

John Lambert 1728- 

William Orr 1737- 

William McGilchrist 1741- 

Robert Betham 1746- 

Samuel Quincy I747- 

Alexander Keith i749- 

John Andrews 1/55- 

Robert Smith (First Bishop of So. Ca.) 1756- 

Joseph D. Wilton 1761- 

James Crallan ^T^T- 

Robert Purcell 1 769- 

Thomas Frost 1786- 

Peter M. Parker '. 1801- 

Milward Pogson 1 802- 

James Dewar Simons - 

Christopher E. Gadsden (Bishop) 1809- 

Thomas D. Frost 1 8 1 5- 



49 

Allston Gibbs 1819-. . . . 

Daniel Cobia 1834-1837 

Abraham Kaufman 1837-1839 

John Barnwell Campbell 1840-1852 

Christopher P. Gadsden 1852-1858 

William B. W. Howe (Bishop) 1859-1863 

John Johnson (the present incumbent). 1871-1872 



There is probably no cemetery in this country which 
contains the remains of so many men who have been 
illustrious in its history, in Church and State, as does 
the Church Yard of St. Philip's. In this respect among 
others St. Philip's is the Abbey of South Carolina. Be- 
fore the old church was completed Robert Daniel, who 
had been Deputy Governor of North Carolina, and a 
Landgrave and Governor of South Carolina, was buried 
near its rising walls, in 1718; and near him, about the 
same time, was interred George Logan, Speaker of the 
Commons. Still before the old church was opened Colonel 
William Rhett, the hero of the defense against the invasion 
of the Spaniards and French in 1706 and of the expedition 
•against the pirates in 1718, the donor of the Silver Com- 
m.union Service to the church,* was interred in the western 
yard, just in front of the church, in 1722. Thomas Hep- 
worth, Chief Justice, was buried there in 1728. A slab of 
slate still marks the grave of the Rev. John Lambert, Master 
of the Free School and Afternoon Lecturer of the Parish, 
who died in 1729. In 1735 "the good Governor Robert 
Johnson," as he was affectionately called — Governor both 
under the Proprietary and Royal Governments — was interred 
near the chancel of the church. The profound jurist and 

*Noble benefactions have from the earliest times been made to the 
church. Among the donors have been Mrs. Affra Coming— Colonel 
William Rhett— Mrs. Kirland— Mrs. Sarah Hort- Colin Campbell- 
James T. Welsman—Charles T. Lowndes— John Wroughton Mitchell, 
and his son Clarence G. Mitchell and grand-son Clarence B. Mitchell- 
Mrs. Juliet F. Wallace— Mrs. Harriet L. Gervais— Miss Susan B. 
Hayne— and Mrs. Anna D. Kaufman. 



50 

learned theologian, the father of the law and of the Courts 
in South Carolina, though, alas ! the corrupt judge, Chief 
Justice Trott, worshipped in the church, and was buried 
in the church yard in 1740. Then followed three other 
Chief Justices — James Graeme, in 1752 ; Charles Pinckney, 
in 1758; and Peter Leigh, in 1759: and Andrew Rutledge, 
Speaker of the Commons, in 1755. The Rev. Alexander 
Garden, Commissary of the Bishop of London, was interred 
on the south side of the church in a tomb which the Ves- 
try had built as a mark of their gratitude for his long and 
faithful services. To Hector Berenger DeBeaufain, Collec- 
tor of Her Majesty's Customs, was erected a handsome 
memorial tablet in the old church by his fellow-citizens of 
the Province. Upon the walls of the old church stood 
also a slab to the memory of the Honorable Othniel 
Beale, a member of the King's Council, and for twenty- 
seven years Colonel of the Charlestown Regiment. Roger 
Pinckney, the last Royal Provost Marshal of the province, 
is buried in the eastern cemetery. The tomb of Benjamin 
Smith, Speaker from 1754 to 1764, still stands next to that 
of Colonel Rhett, his ancestor, in the western cemetery, 
directly in front of the church. Of physicians there wor- 
shipped in this church the two Doctors John Moultrie, 
father and son^ — Dr. John Rutledge, father of the distin- 
guished trio of sons — and Dr. Lionel Chalmers: the two 
last are buried in the church yard. 

Of the statesmen, heroes and exilesof the Revolution many 
lie around the edifice. Among these are Christopher Gads- 
den, the foremost of all, and William Johnson, his uncompro- 
mising follower and " right hand man ;" Rawlins Lowndes, 
Governor in 1778, who requested that the epitaph upon his 
tomb should be : "The opponent of the adoption of the 
Constitution of the United States;" Edward Rutledge, 
signer of the Declaration of Independence and Governor; 
Colonel Isaac Motte, second in command at the battle of 
Fort Moultrie, 28th June, 1776; Thomas Pinckney, Major 
in the Continental Army during the Revolution, Major- 
General in the War of 1812, Minister to England and Spain, 



51 

and Governor of the State; Major Benjamin Hui^er, who 
fell before the Hues of Charlestown, on the iith May, 1779, 
during Provost's invasion ; Major Thomas Grimball, who 
commanded the Battalion of Artillery during the siege of 
Charlestown, in 1780; Daniel Huger, Charles Pinckney and 
John Lewis Gervais, the three members of the Council who 
accompanied Governor Rutledge when it was determined 
that he should leave the town before its surrender to the 
British, in order to preserve the Government of the State. 

The Rev. Robert Smith, Rector of the Church and first 
Bishop of South Carolina, who was banished by the British 
authorities and his property confiscated, lies to the east of 
the church near the chancel. 

Upon the walls of the old church there was a tablet to 
the memory of Jacob and Rebecca Motte. Jacob Motte 
was a distini^uished citizen, long the Treasurer of the Pro- 
vince ; his widow, Rebecca, was the heroine of Fort Motte, ^ 
the lady who fired her own roof as the most decisive 
method of re iucing the hostile British garrison which held 
and surrounded it with their works. 

There was also a monument to the memory of Charles 
Dewar Simons, Professor of Natural Science and Chemistry 
in the South Carolina College, who was drowned near 
Columbia in 1812. 

Of a later period are found the graves of Thomas W. 
Bacot the first Postmaster of Charleston under the present 
Constitution of the United States, who was appointed by 
Washington and held the office for forty-three years con- 
tinuously ; and of his son of the same name, Assistant Post- 
master for thirt}'-six years under his father and the Hon. 
Alfred Huger: and also of Judge Elihu Hall Bay ; Judge 
Theodore Gaillard ; the "gifted" and brilliant William 
Crafts; the venerable Daniel Huger; Dr. Henry R. Frost, 
and Dr. Thomas G. Prioleau, chairmen of the Vestry ; the 
distinguished son and grandsons of Bishop Smith, William 
Mason Smith, and J. J. Pringle Smith and William Mason 
Smith, Jr., the two former each for years Chairman of the 
Vestry; Mr. J. J. Pringle Smith, a distinguished representa- 



52 

tive of the Parish in the Diocesan Convention and of the 
Diocese in the General Convention of the Church, and a 
member of the Secession Convention; Henry D. Lesesne, 
Chairman of the Vestry, and a Chancellor of the State; 
and the late Charles Richardson Miles, Attorney-General 
of the State, and a delegate to the Diocesan Convention. 
John Blake White, the artist, and his son. Colonel Alonzo 
J. White, are buried in the eastern cemetery. Edward B. 
White, the architect, the builder of the present steeple, 
another son of the artist, a member of the church, is buried 
elsewhere. 

The congregation has also furnished a number of distin- 
guished Naval Officers. Col. Thomas Shubrick of the 
Revolution, himself the captain of a vessel — his four sons. 
Rear Admiral William Branford Shubrick, Captain John 
Taylor Shubrick who was lost at sea while bearing to the 
United States the treaty with Algiers in 1815, Captain 
Edward Rutledge Shubrick and Commodore Irwine Shu- 
brick were all of this church. 

A monumental stone, erected by the officers, seamen and 
marines of the United States Frigate Columbia, in memory 
of their beloved Commander Edward R. Shubrick, stands 
over his grave in the eastern church yard. 

Commodore Duncan N. Ingraham of "Kosta" fame was 
for years chairman of the Vestry. 

Within a hundred yards of each other, in the western 
cemetery of the church, it so happens that there lie, almost 
in line, the remains of four of the leaders of the great nulli- 
fication struggle — on the one side the two nullifiers John 
C. Calhoun and Robert J. Turnbull — and on the other the 
two Johnsons, nnio)i men, sons of William, before men- 
tioned, to wit, William Johnson, who was Speaker of the 
State House of Representatives at twenty-six years of age, 
a Judge on the State Bench at twenty-eight, and a Justice 
of the Supreme Court of the United States at thirty-two ; 
and his brother, Dr. Joseph Johnson, Mayor of the city, etc. 
The following deceased Members of Congress have come 
from the congregation: William Laughton Smith, General 



53 

John Rutledge, Joel R. Poinsett, William Lowndes, Henry 
L. Pinckney, Isaac E. Holmes and William Aiken. William 
Porcher Miles, still living, also a member of the congrega- 
tion, was the last Member of Congress from the Charleston 
District before the war, and was also a member of the Con- 
federate Congress. It is remarkable that three Members of 
Congress from Charleston were chosen in succession from 
St. Philip's congregation, to wit : Holmes, Aiken and 
Miles. The Hon. William Henry Trescot (still living), As- 
sistant Secretary of State under President Buchanan's Ad- 
ministration, Agent of the United States before the Halifax 
Commission, Minister to China and to Peru, is also of this 
church. 

Besides the clergymen we have already named as buried 
in the yard, there lie around the church: Bishop Smith, 
Bishop Gadsden, Bishop Howe, the Reverends Thomas 
Frost, Milward Pogson, James Dewar Simons, Thomas D. 
Frost, Cranmore Wallace, Paul T. Gervais, Christopher P. 
Gadsden, William Dehon, F. Marion Hall and James W. 
Miles. 

In the western church yard, besides Edward McCrady, 
(one of the exiles and the first of his name in this country,) 
above mentioned, there lie his son John, a brilliant young 
lawyer, whose premature death was mourned by the com- 
munity; his son, the late venerable Edward McCrady, 
lawyer and theologian, for years District Attorney of the 
United States, and a member of the Secession Convention, 
and who for over fifty years represented St. Philip's in the 
Diocesan Convention, and for forty years was a member of 
the Standing Committee of the Diocese, and for more than 
thirty a Deputy of the Diocese in the General Convention of 
the Episcopal Church ; and his sons — Professor John Mc- 
Crady, Major of Engineers in the Confederate Army, Pro- 
fessorof Mathematics in the Charleston College, of Zoology 
in Harvard, Cambridge, Mass., and of Biology in the Uni- 
versity of the South — and Thomas McCrady, an officer of 
the Confederate Army, and beloved by the community. 
In this yard there is the grave of Colonel John DeBerniere, 



54 

of the British Army, the ancestor of several famihes in 
North and South CaroHiia. 

In the eastern cemetery there is a slab with the simple 
inscription : " Mrs. Cornelia Fremont." This slab marks 
the grave of the mother of General John C. Fremont, the 
"Path Finder" across the Rocky Mountains, the first candi- 
date of the Republican party for the Presidency of the 
United States, and Federal General in the late war. 

Of others distinguished in the annals of the Province and 
State who worshipped in the Church, but were buried else- 
where, there were Sir Nathaniel Johnson, the Governor, 
under whose administration the invasion of the Province 
by the French and Spaniards took place in 1706, and the 
fierce contest was raged overthe Church Acts of 1704-1706; 
the Rev. Gideon Johnson, Commissary, who was drowned 
in the harbor in 1716; Chief Justices Benjamin Whitaker 
and James Michie ; Arthur Middleton, President of the 
Convention which overthrew the Proprietary Government ; 
Henry Middleton, who was President of the Continental 
Congress in 1774; his son, Arthur Middleton, signer of the 
Declaration of Independence; his son, Henry Middleton, 
Governor of the State and Minister to Russia; Henry Lau- 
rens, President of the Continental Congress from 1776 to 
1778 ; and his son. Col. John Laurens, an Aide to Washing- 
ton and Envoy to France ; General WilHam Moultrie, the 
hero of the 28th June, 1776, who twice saved the city from 
capture by the British ; Gabriel Manigault, for many years 
a Vestryman, who supported the Congress of the United 
States during the Revolution with a loan of $220,000 ; his 
son, Peter Manigault, Speaker of the Commons during the 
first Non-importation Movement; his grandsons, Edward 
Manigault, a Major in the United States Army during the 
Mexican war and Colonel in the Confederate service, and 
Arthur M. Manigault, also an officer in the Mexican war 
and Brigadier General in the Confederate service 
during the late war ; Isaac Mazyck, the great mer- 
chant — and his son of the same name, an Assistant 
Judge; the wise and noble William Wragg, who exiled 



55 

from his country because of his loyalty to his King, 
perished at sea, to whose memory there is a tablet 
in Westminster Abbey; Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, 
General in the Continental Army, member of the Con- 
vention which framed the Constitution of the United 
States, and Minister to France, long a Vestryman of the 
Church ; Charles Pinckney, cousin of the last named, one of 
the exiles to St. Augustine, member of the Convention 
which framed the Constitution of the United States, United 
States Senator, Minister to Spain and Governor of the 
State ; Ralph Izard, a diplomat of the Revolution, member 
of the Continental Congress, and Senator of the United 
States; and his son, George, Major General in the War of 
1812; Joel R. Poinsett, Secretary of War and Minister to 
Mexico; General James Gadsden, an officer of distinction 
in the War of i8t2, and Minister to Mexico; William 
Lowndes, of whom, it was said, the highest and best hopes 
of the country looked to him for their fulfillment, and whose 
character has been described by an eminent writer "as the 
ablest, purest and most unselfish statesman of his day," who 
died at sea; Francis H. Rutledge, the first Bishop of Florida ; 
Charles T. Lowndes, the eminent citizen and generous 
benefactor of the Church ; N. Russell Middleton, President 
of the Charleston College ; Isaac Hayne, for many years At- 
torney General of the State ; William Alston Pringle, Re- 
corder of the city ; and Hon. Henry Buist, the distinguished 
lawyer. 

The necrology of St. Philip's is thus rich in its material. 
Of the dignitaries of the Church in the line of the Episco- 
pate there lie around her hallowed walls two Commissaries 
of the Bishop of London, three Bishops of the American 
Church, and seven ministers who have served at her altar. 
Of chief magistrates, two Colonial and three State 
Governors are buried within her precincts, besides number- 
ing among her worshippers two other Colonial and four other 
State Governors who are buried elsewhere. Six Colonial 
Chief Justices worshipped in her sanctuary, four of whom 
are buried in her cemeterv. Two Presidents of the Conti- 



56 

nental Congress and two signers of the Declaration of In- 
dependence were reared in this Church, one of the signers 
resting near her walls. Ambassadors and ministers have gone 
from her to foreign lands, and Members of Congress have 
been again and again chosen from her members. Soldiers 
of all the wars in which South Carolina, Province and State, 
has been engaged lie within her gates. And there also are to 
be found the graves of men of science. It is believed that 
she has never been without a representation in the Senate or 
House of the State Legislature. 

All of the young men of the Church went at once into 
the service of the Confederate States during the late war, 
and in the vestibule there is placed this memorial of those 
of them who gave their lives for their country: 

IN MEMORY OP 

THOSE SOLDIERS OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES 
Connected with St. Philip's Church, ^ 

Who Died for Their Country. 



HENRY AUGUSTUS MIDDLETON, Jr„ 

Co. A, Hampton Legion; mortally wounded Manassas, Va., 

21 July, 186L 

Died 27 July, 186L Aged 31 years. 

J. E. Mcpherson Washington, 

1st Lieut., A. D. C. to Brig. -Gen. Garnett. 
Died Montery, Va., 25 Aug., 1861. Aged 24 years. 

EDMUND SHUBRICK HAYNE, 
Co. L, 1 S. C. Vols.; mortally wounded Cold Harbour, Va., 27 June, 1862. 
Died 30 June, 1862. Aged 18 years. 

ALFRED GAILLARD PINCKNEY, 

Co. L, 1 S. C. Vols.; killed Cold Harbour, Va., 27 June, 1862. 

Aged 19 years. 

ROBERT WOODWARD RHETT, 
1st Lieut. Co. L, 1 S. C. Vols.; mortally wounded Cold Harbour, Va., 

27 June, 1862. 
Died 30 June, 1862. Aged 23 years. 

WILLIAM PRITCHARD, 

Co. A, 25 S. C. Vols. 

Died James Island, S. C, 16 Aug., 1862. Aged 30 years. 



57 

NATHANIEL HEYWARD, Jr., 

Co. L, 1 S. C. Vols.; killed Manassas, Va., 39 Aug., 1862. 

Aged 19 years, 

HARRY P. ROUX. 

Co. A, Hampton Legion; killed Manassas, Va., 30 Aug., 1862. 

Aged 19 years. 

HENRY WRIGHT KINLOCH, 

1st Lieut. Co. D, 6 S. C. Cav. 

Died Aiken, S. C, 24 Oct., 1863. Aged 30 years. 

JOSEPH HEYWARD, 

Capt. A. A. G. Provisional Army C. S. 

Died 7 Novr., 1863. Aged 32 years. 

WASHINGTON ALSTON, 

Sergt. Co. L, 1 S. C. Vols.; killed Fredricksburg, Va., 13 Dec., 1863. 

Aged 18 years. 

GEORGE COFFIN PINCKNEY, 

Co. L, 1 S. C. Vols.; killed Fredricksburg, Va., 13 Dec, 1863. 

Aged 25 years. 

WILLIAM GAILLARD INGRAHAM, 

Lieut. Co. B, Act'g. Adj't., 23 S. C. Vols. 

Died 8 March. 1863. Aged 33 years. 

JOSEPH SANFORD FERGUSON, 

Marion Art'y. 

Died 15 July, 1863. Aged 19 years. 

WALTER EWING GIBSON, 

Co. A, 35 S. C. Vols.; killed Fort Sumter, 31 Oct., 1863. 

Aged 18 years. 

JOHN WEBB, 

Capt. Co. K, 3 S. C. Vols.; killed Spottsylvania, Va., 13 May, 1864. 

Aged 26 years. 

JAMES MERRITT SCHMIDT, 

Co. C, 11 S. C. Vols.; killed Drewry's Blui¥, Va., 16 May, 1864. 

Aged 31 years. 

FRANCIS KINLOCH MIDDLETON, 

Co. K, 4 S. C. Cav.; mortally wounded Hawes Shop, Va., 28 May, 1864, 

Died 30 May, 1864. Aged 39 years. 

CHARLES EDWARD PRIOLEAU, 

Co. K, 4 S. C. Cav.; killed Hawes Shop, Va., 38 May, 1864. 

Aged 24 years. 



58 

WILLIAM HUEY FAIRLEY, 

Co. K, 4 S. C. Cav.; killed Trevillian's Sta., Va., 11 June, 1864. 

Aged «7 years. 

WILLIAM MASON SMITH, 
1st Lieut., Adj't. 27 S. C. Vols. ; mortally wounded Cold Harbour, Va., 

3 June, 1864. 
Died Richmond, Va., 16 Aug., 1864. Aged 31 years. 

MATTHEW VASSAR BANCROFT, 

Major 23 S. C. Vols.; killed Petersburg, Va., 22 June, 1864. 

Aged 25 years. 

ISAAC BALL GIBBS, 

Co. B, 25 S. C. Vols.; killed Reams Sta., Va.,21 Aug., 1864. 

Aged 23 years. 

JACOB JOHN GUERARD, 
1st Lieut, Co. C, 11 S. C. Vols.; died in prison Fort Delaware, 14 Sept., 

1864. 
Aged 33 year^.. 

EDWARD B. HEYWARD, 

Marion Art'y.; died Church Flats, S. C, 6 Dec, 1864. 

Aged 24 years. 

PETER MANIGAULT, 

Co. H, 3 S. C. Cav.; killed Ball's Ferry, Oconee River, Ga., 

23 Nov., 1864. 

Aged 59 years. 

ALFRED MANIGAULT, 

Co. K, 4 S. C. Cav.; died Winnsboro, S. C, 20 Feb'y, 1865. 

Aged 24 years. 

HENRY RUSSELL LESESNE, 

Capt. Co. H, 1 S. C. Regular Art'y.; killed Averysboro, N. C, 

16 March, 1865. 

Aged 22 years. 

BURGH SMITH BURNET, 
Capt. Co. F, 1 S. C. Regular Inf'y.; mortally wounded Averysboro, N. C. 

16 March, 1865. 
Died 28 March, 1865. Aged 28 years. 

FRANCIS KINLOCH LESESNE, 
Marion Art'y.; died 24 June, 1865. Aged 20 years. 



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